It feels like 1996 again
This week felt a lot like 1996. There's been lots of colored loot, lots of mouse clicking and lots of time spent pouring over skill trees.
BORDERLANDS
My mild fury at having to wait a week for a copy of Borderlands where you can actually aim was tempered a bit by knowing that everybody toiling on the console versions got bug-ridden copies of the game. Sure, my game has crashed a few times, but I haven't lost any specialization points and my phase strike ability worked from the start (well, once I reached the right level).
This skag doesn't like fire very much.
I don't have much to add to what Benji said about the game. It's a sick FPS with simple, solid RPG elements. I play an "invisible ninja chick who wields a shotgun" and various machine guns, and I haven't had this much fun shooting people in the face since Half-Life 2. The randomness of the loot system is a bit annoying, and mediocre guns often have silly level requirements, but I'm willing to look past that.
My biggest problem is that I can't play as much as I'd like. Benji and I are playing together, and we have to stay the same level or the game gets unbalanced pretty quickly. We played for a while when I was only two levels behind him, and I couldn't damage the bandits the game threw at us.
But Borderlands has made me happy, both when I'm alone and when someone's got my back. It's exactly what I expected, and it is good.
TORCHLIGHT
If, while playing Torchlight, you get a sense that you've delved deep underground in search of sweet loot before, don't be alarmed. A small developer called Blizzard made a very similar game in the 90s called Diablo. In fact, some of the people who worked on that worked on Torchlight, which might explain why it's so much fun.
Hanging out with my imp, puppy and golem.
Torchlight plays like Diablo, only with better graphics. Not much else has changed. Scrolls still reveal the identity of mystery drops and take you back to town, minibosses still surround themselves with weaker versions of themselves, and there are plenty of gems to fit onto your stuff. The only additions that are new to me are a pet that holds your stuff and basic spells that every character class can use, including your pet.
There are three character classes available. The destroyer hits things, the vanquisher hits things with arrows, and the alchemist has a marketable profession to fall back on if this dungeon crawling gig doesn't work out. I picked the alchemist because they're basically a cross between a mage and a summoner, and I like to sit back and cast ember lance while while my imps, wolf and golem engage the dungeon denizens. It's been a lot of fun, but it's also been really easy on normal, so I'll probably start over on hard. I'm not sure if I'll pick a new class. I like having minions do a large portion of my work, but the other classes have some pretty cool skills.
There's virtually no story and little quest variety, but if you're playing this kind of game for that, you're doing it wrong. This game begs to be played with the TV on.
WIDGET TD
Take control of towers in WidgetTD.
I also played the demo for a pretty simple tower defense game from Graybox Games called WidgetTD. Like any other tower defense game you build and upgrade defensive structures and hope they're enough to keep wave after wave of attackers under control.
The only mechanic WidgetTD adds to the mix is the ability to take control of any one tower. This brings up a first person cockpit view, and you can aim for the enemies you want. For some towers, this isn't much use, but from the cockpit, your basic gun tower can hit anything on the map. The difficulty seems a bit out of whack though; creeps' hit points ramp up far faster than you can upgrade your towers. Otherwise it's a strong entry for the genre.
NEWS
Here are some of the things we'll be talking about in this week's podcast.
Leigh Alexander talks about Demon's Souls in a Kotaku feature defending hard games. She says hard games aren't necessarily frustrating, and that a good hard game will explain why you fail and offer a road to mastery. But really, I just want to hear more from Rex about Demon's Souls, because everything I've read and heard about the game makes it very hard to not buy a ps3 right now.
David Carlton at malvasia bianca asks why we divide games into genre by their point of view, and not their content, and suggests we define Beatles Rock Band as a non-fiction game, not a rhythm game.
And finally, I feel bad for gamers who paid real money for legitimate copies of Borderlands before the street date, but couldn't play until the online verification servers came online Monday. Someday those servers are going to shut down and the only way to play the game will be with a crack. That's the real problem with licenses.
If you've got something else you want us to talk about, comment here or send me a message @gamegnathus
Virtual Console Round-Up: October '09
October 2009 showcased some high-profile titles for the Virtual Console. Let's get right to it.
Best. Box art. Ever.
October 5th was undoubtedly the biggest deal of all. Why? FINAL FANTASY, that's why! Though this game has seen many remakes in its time, the fact is that the original remains an important gaming experience. each remake tweaked the game a little, and though there's no question that there are "balance issues" with Squaresoft's first true RPG, the historical value of the game in its original form, flaws and all, make it a worthwhile purchase. Plus, the "classic" graphics and sound bring back all the treasured memories.
Seriously, I don't want to cast spells with mp. Give me the slot/usage system for magic any day of the week, and keep my Marsh Cave difficulty at the "purgatorial punishment" level while you're at it.
Next up? FINAL FIGHT 2 from Capcom, on SNES. If you haven't played any of the Final Fight games, you're missing out on classic beat 'em up action. It's worth noting that while the original game was released first for arcade, and later for SNES, this game was an SNES exclusive.
Other games in our VC list, however, were not console-exclusive. And what does that mean? More unnecessary releases.
The arcade version of RYGAR was released on October 19th in the "Arcade" section of the VC store. For 600 Wii Points, people can have a game that you may not have even realized existed. Yes, you've played the NES version of Rygar, but did you know that the NES game is a completely different game than what was released in the arcade? Yes, that's right! The NES Rygar played like a cross between the Legend of Zelda and Metroid. The arcade Rygar is another 2D action platformer. So, hey, maybe this one's actually worth paying for! Tecmo is generally known for good action games, not good puzzle-centric adventure games.
Back when arcade machines were still cool.
On October 26th, we got the arcade version of Sega's GOLDEN AXE. Now *this* was just unnecessary. I know the arcade version looks better than the Genesis version, but not by much. Fans of Golden Axe who own a Wii may well have already purchased the Sega Genesis version of the game (released November 2006) for 600 Wii Points. Now they would have to pay another 900 Wii Points (yes, that's a $9 price tag) to get the arcade version. I'm going to go ahead and say that's downright ridiculous.
Fortunately, October 26th also saw the release of a game that many people will be happy to download. It's the SNES version of ZOMBIES ATE MY NEIGHBORS from LucasArts. Yes, the run and gun platforming classic that took over our 16-bit consoles in 1994 is back, and for only 800 Wii Points, you can get back into the groove. Certain elements of the game, such as the character art, scream "late '80s" more than "early '90s," so there's some double-layered retro happening right there. As for the gameplay itself, it's nothing special by today's standards, but anyone who remembers the game probably has a hankering to play it again before they die. Here's your chance.
"Player 1"? There's no such thing! Screw convention, we're all about Player Left and Player Right in our hip new game!
Weenisday? Update
And lo, the 4th week of the 10th month would be the Week Of Gamegnathus. Ye verily.
Gunnar has got me hooked on a bunch of good stuff this week — you'll probably see some overlap, but I go first and am better by any empirical standard, so read this post. That will free up your Friday to run out and buy whatever Halloween costume is left at your local thrift shop.
SMALL WORLDS
Gunnar threw this gem up on his Twitter last week. It's a neat little piece, but that it calls itself a game does rub me the wrong way. Yes, on a very rudimentary level, it's a game, as you're trying to navigate your little man from point A to point B. But clearly that challenge is not the "point" of the piece.
I'm not completely comfortable with how far we've stretched the "game" moniker. If the only criterion for being a game is that you interact in some way, then adjusting the contrast on your TV is technically a game.
I'm not so much interested in having a council of very serious persons setup guidelines for what gets to be a game. What we really need is a word for these things that hover in the nebulous gray zone between art and games. "Gart" comes to mind, but I'm open to suggestions.
BORDERLANDS
Gunnar has been drooling over Borderlands for weeks, but I was unmoved. Then I was linked to these delightful talent trees. It was at that point I decided they were actually taking this project seriously, so I had to poke my head in.
I'm impressed with their effort on the roleplaying side, but it is a tad old-school. They've taken the loot system almost verbatim from Diablo, even using Blizzard's color-ranking system for loot. The odd thing to me is that they chose to crib Diablo 1 instead of WoW, which has substantially improved the 'epic lewtz' model. Getting anything to drop is completely random, so I find myself crossing my fingers and checking the store constantly. Having a choice of loot from quests and linking powerful weapons to powerful enemies instead of RNG (random number generation) should be standard these days.
I have been impressed with the FPS elements. I find myself hot swapping weapons, mixing in my melee attacks and watching enemy patterns to expose weak spots. Clearly they've done a lot right. It's also surprising how much more I enjoy FPS when I have control over my weapon load outs. I've always found automatic weapons pretty boring, and I've managed to eschew them almost entirely so far in favor of sniper rifles and high powered pistols.
Gunnar has been some kind of invisible ninja chick who wields a shotgun. Clearly anything goes.
The game includes vehicles, but they're wonky as all hell. They have no inertia, so you run into bushes and stop dead without taking any damage. Also, whenever I have access to a vehicle, I just run over bad guys, hop out, grab my plot coupons and move on to the next camp. Fortunately, you can't take them into a lot of places, so they don't stomp the difficulty curve.
I'm really curious to see how multiplayer and endgame content shape up. I know I've approached my character methodically with an eye toward having a "build" for use in a group setup. As far as I can tell, Gunnar is basically winging it. I'm curious to see if Borderland's multiplayer will lean toward MMO-style punishment for those that don't have a group setup and a focused roles, or if it will ultimately lean toward FPS, where any group that shoots good will be fine.
We'll keep you posted. If you want to hook up with me on Steam, I'm BenjiGauntlet. I think.
I'll post a video shortly of me playing through Borderlands' first real quest.
WoW Update
Patch 3.3, which will add Icecrown Citadel (Arthas' crib) is incoming, so that's where most of the news is. Blizzard has started releasing info about class changes and the new raid. I can't find any 3.3 PTR raid videos that aren't live feeds, so here's some of the five-man stuff. I'll try to FRAPS something up or find some raid videos as soon as I can.
Jurassic Radio #25: Death Valley
SOME adults get together over dinner and wine. We 're willing to settle for chips and beer.
In this week's episode, the fearsome foursome finish up talking BRUTAL LEGEND and UNCHARTED 2, and we check out SOUTH PARK LET'S GO TOWER DEFENSE PLAY for Xbox Live Arcade, TRINE for the PS3 and LOST WINDS: WINTER OF THE MELODIAS on WiiWare. Downloadable games, ahoy! And when Pat finally shows up, we speak at length about THE WIZARD OF OZ: BEYOND THE YELLOW-BRICK ROAD.
Then our finely structured program falls apart as we start sampling Kettle brand chips, recounting concerts and getting gradually more tipsy.
We clear the two-hour mark with ease here, which usually means we're tired and talkative (seriously poor combination), but that's not the case here. Drunk plus chatty plus enthusiastic is a win, and while we aren't always on point this week, I do hope we're consistently entertaining enough for yas.
Next week, more games. It's hard to believe that the entire enthusiast press organism was freaking out just a few weeks ago about the quickly evaporating fall calendar, because this week brings us TEKKEN 6, RATCHET & CLANK: A CRACK IN TIME, THE BALLAD OF GAY TONY, DJ HERO, FORZA 3, TORCHLIGHT and, at long last, SPONGEBOB: TRUTH OR SQUARE.
And the week after that? DRAGON AGE. Yeesh.
With music from Cage the Elephant, Seeed and Edna's Goldfish.
PODCAST
(right-click to save, use player below, or get the show on iTunes here)
Jurassic Radio #25: Death Valley
00:00 - 33:43 -- What we've been playing
ACT BREAK -- Cage the Elephant, "In One Ear"
34:47 - 1:05:35 -- Kettle brand Chip-off
ACT BREAK -- Seeed, "What You Deserve Is What You Get"
1:06:47 - 1:23:26 -- Concert review, the news and what's coming out
OUTRO -- Edna's Goldfish, "Veronica Sawyer"
SHOW NOTES
Artful Gamer - The trouble with avatars - http://www.artfulgamer.com/2009/10/16/body-armour-and-the-problem-of-avataritis/
Gameswire - Is the PS3 held back by the 360? - http://www.gameswire.net/news/opinion-is-the-360-holding-the-ps3-back_422.html
PC World - The sorry state of Games for Windows - http://www.pcworld.com/article/174017/the_sorry_state_of_windows_7_gaming.html
Über review: "Brütal Legend"
BRÜTAL LEGEND is the story of Eddie Riggs, a roadie sent back in time to save humanity by teaching it how to rock. It starts as a brawler, then incorporates some racing and ends up being a real time strategy game conducted as a general on the field. The elements almost work together, but the highs of the story and the good parts of the gameplay are held back by some pretty bad design decisions. For instance, Benji was unimpressed by the final hours of my time with the game, but it left me with a pretty good feeling, even though the ending felt rushed. But that feeling was crushed moments later after a visit to gamefaqs.com, which defines my experience with the game.
I went to gamefaqs.com to find out how to free the bound serpents, the statues strewn around the game world. There are more than a hundred of the serpents spread around the world, and I thought unchaining them unlocked concept art or some other kind of bonus material. Nope, they're the only way to increase your heath -- something rather important.
Now, I'd like to start over and check the tour book, which tells you about things you find in the game, to see if it tells you how to free the serpents when you first encounter them. I made it through the game on brutal without freeing a single one, but I'd like to confirm that I'm not a moron, there's no way to start a new game without saving over the old one.
Long story short, I confirmed that the game doesn't tell you how to free the bound serpents until after you've done it the first time. All it cost me was my save.
Hint: The bad guys wear pink.
The game witholds all sorts of necessary information from you. It's hard to tell when enemies have died because they have no health bars and tend to keep moving after they're dead. This is especially bad for the emo kids, because they can lose their heads and still come after you. That's bad enough, but a second problem with the lack of health bars is that there isn't an easy way to tell what ax and string upgrades are best. The only way to test their effectiveness is to count how many swings it takes to take an enemy down, which seems like a lot of work.
The worst design failure is the short rhythm game you're forced to play to summon your car or play a face-melting solo. When there's no one around, they're just annoying, but they're broken when a lot of character models are on the screen because the game starts to slow down, which turns the process into one settled by luck, not skill.
The last annoyance I'll talk about is the dodge move, something you'll never use it because it takes three buttons. You have to lock onto a bad guy, block and then press the direction you want to dodge. There's no reason to require a lock-on to be part of my defensive strategy. It's just mind boggling that one of the playtesters didn't go "you know, Tim, this dodge mechanic is really awkward."
Brutal Legend does get some details right. When you're driving, your next destination is marked by a tower of light that glows in the distance, but when you can't see that, your car's turn signals glow to indicate which way you should turn to get on the right path, which is both cool and intuitive. And I really enjoyed the way your allies represent the various members of a stage crew and how most of the bad guys come from eras where metal lost its heart.
And the action/RTS hybrid works, more or less. Your best strategy is to carry around the rally flag and surround yourself with troops, then lend support fire where needed. If you do this, the game becomes pretty easy. It's pretty sad I played the game on brutal with no health upgrades and the only really challenging part of the single player mission was the last five minutes of the RTS battle when both sides can summon all units. The more RTS battles I fought, the more I liked them, and I wish there had been more stages where every unit was available to each side. I enjoyed them. Benji did not, so your enjoyment will vary. It's a shame such a large portion of the game isn't included in the demo.
When the characters are on the screen and the controller isn't in use, Brutal Legend does very little wrong. The tale is epic and original and ties the various worlds of metal together in some pretty cool ways. Jack Black adheres to the roadie mythos and plays Eddie Riggs with cool reserve, Ozzy Osborne is surprisingly entertaining and lucid, and the rest of the voice acting is solid. My only issue with the story is that the pacing is pretty screwed up. There are three big bad guys, but you split 90% of the game chasing the first two around. The third guy shows up right after the second one is finished, and you're done with him pretty quick.
The art and sound are pretty much pitch perfect. Eddie Riggs looks like a jacked Black, and the character's movements help sell the humor in Tim Schafer's words and Black's delivery. Your allies are caricatures of headbangers, bouncers and sound guys, and they seem at home on lands based on metal album covers. My opinion of metal is usually eh, but I enjoyed the tunes coming out of my car, so unless you change the station when Black Sabbeth come on (radio references aren't outdated right?) you'll be ok.
Brutal Legend can be summed up with one word. Disappointing. I expected a lot from Schafer and Double Fine. There's a good game here, and it's paired with a great story, but fumbling of some basic game mechanics tarnishes the final product. Rent, don't buy, because the story is worth it.
Must-Watch Trailer For Ar tonelico III
The AR TONELICO series remains one of my all-time favorites, even after NIS America botched the localization of AR TONELICO II. Anyone who completed the sequel knew a third game would be in the works, thanks to some end-game dialogue between two characters suggesting there was, indeed, a third floating continent with its own tower that was sure to have its own problems.
AR TONELICO III was announced only a few weeks ago, with a January 2010 release scheduled in Japan. It's a PlayStation 3 title, and battle and exploration are now in 3D, which is a big deal for a Gust/Banpresto title.
The games also have fantastic music, including these crazy-weird ethnic vocals in a made-up language (called "Hymmnos" in the game). Watch the trailer. Take it all in. And be ready for me to obsess over this game when it eventually comes to the US via NIS America (not yet confirmed, but almost sure to be the truth).
Reviewing A Game In Its Sequel's Clothing: "Star Ocean: First Departure"
One of the last RPGs to be released on the Super Famicom (aka "Super Nintendo") was tri-Ace's STAR OCEAN. The tri-Ace team was formed after TALES OF PHANTASIA, the first game in the Tales series, was released on the same system. Both games didn't come to America on this original platform, in this original time frame (1996). But even then, word was out in America that these incredible late-era 16-bit RPGs existed, and their existence was like something of a legend for poor little American boys like myself.
The full story is that Namco took the first game in the Tales series and basically ruined it. Or at least, that's how Yoshiharu Gotanda, the man who wrote the original plot for Tales of Phantasia, felt. So he went on with some colleagues to form tri-Ace, and their first game would launch what is a fairly well-known sci-fi fantasy epic. Gotanda also wrote the story for Star Ocean, and his team made a game that played and looked in almost every way like Tales of Phantasia. There was time travel, there was a strong emphasis on character interaction and building a sizable party, there was the action-based battle system, and... yeah. The only new thing brought to the game was the skill / skill points system, something that has forever defined the Star Ocean series as something truly special.
A time must come when the things of the past re-surface. More specifically, that time comes when Square Enix decides they want more money with minimal effort. However, with Star Ocean, they knew that this outdated SNES title wouldn't hold well in today's market. So they re-tooled Star Ocean, from the ground up, and put it in the form of the second game in the series (STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY for PlayStation, which did come to America). Both of these games were released on PSP as STAR OCEAN: FIRST DEPARTURE and STAR OCEAN: SECOND EVOLUTION respectively. The company TOSE worked on the remake of the first game, and the port of the second game, in tandem with tri-Ace and Square Enix. But it was mostly TOSE.
This is how the game looked back then...
The jump from Star Ocean to Star Ocean: First Departure was big. Graphically, all environments were changed to gorgeous pre-rendered scenes (a common thing for PSX RPGs). And the battles switched from a top-screen 2D to the 2.5D of Star Ocean 2. In other words, Star Ocean: First Departure was the plot of the first game put into the skin of the second game. Truth be told, it was a really great idea.
And, in my humble opinion, this game needed the boost. Because, despite all the myth and legend about this "incredible" Super Famicom RPG I'd heard as a youngster, it's really not a great game. The brief experience I've had with the original version was that it a) wasn't as good as Tales of Phantasia, 2) had a really awful encounter rate, and iii) would have sold terribly in the US.
The game took me about 40 hours to conquer. And by "conquer," I don't just mean end credits. I mean absurd level-grind in secret dungeon, evil secret last boss, and another insanely-hard enemy you can summon on the world map. The only thing I didn't do was play the game a second time to get all the characters. The game limits your party to 8 characters (4 of whom are mandatory in SO1), out of a total of 12 playable characters. I witnessed something crazy, by accident, in my own playthrough: a character died. It was an optional scene that you can avoid in one of two ways, and they actually added a special anime cut scene just for this event. I was sort of glad to get rid of her, because with the free space, I picked up Welch Vineyard, the secret character they added to the PSP ports, who was first introduced in STAR OCEAN: TILL THE END OF TIME (aka SO3) for PlayStation 2. And all I have to say about her? "Nibelung!!! something-or-other..." hilarious!
...And this is how it looks now.
Spoiler alert for brief plot synopsis. Some humans with tails (Saiyans?) from the planet Roak start turning into stone one day. They think it's from a naturally-occurring illness, but it turns out it's a biological weapon being used by some crazy folk. The people on planet Roak are "underdeveloped," in that they've yet to make contact with outside planets. Some very Star-Trek-style people from Earth show up (seriously, Ronyx looks and acts like Spock). They explain the situation to two young adventurers: Roddick and Millie. Roddick, Millie, Ronyx, and Ilia go through some lengthy exposition, and then decide to fly to the Planet Styx and beg the acorporeal "gatekeeper" of the Time Gate to let them go 300 years into the past to get a tissue sample from the evil creature "Asmodeus," who seems to be the original host of the "turn-you-to-stone" disease.
(aside: there was something in the game's exposition about Roakian blood being copper-based instead of iron-based, and how their blood looked invisible to everyone except other Roakians, and that blood could be used as a cloaking device. This plot point goes nowhere by the end, but it would've been a cool thing to work with...)
So you end up in the Roak of the past, where 90% of the game takes place. After kicking butt there, going through all manner of quests and picking up a full party, you defeat Asmodeus, then find out about a sinister third party. And then there's something about the continent of "Mu" (it's like Atlantis, but in the Pacific instead of the Atlantic), and how a meteor that destroyed the continent sent humans to planets all over the galaxy. It isn't as interesting as I made it sound. So that's a bad thing.
Music is by Motoi Sakuraba (of course). You either love it or you get tired of it really fast. Me? I switch my opinion of the guy like I switch underwear. So I won't say anything more about him.
So, outside of the plot, virtually everything about the game feels like Second Evolution, which I've already reviewed. Having played both games, I'm going to cut this review short (at 1000 words...short?) and just say the game gets a 4 out of 5. Great gameplay formula, great remake, but the original plot and characters just don't sell themselves as well as those in SO2. That's an opinion right there. I have a few of those.
Jurassic Radio #24: Dennis Hopkinser
Did you guys know some games came out? Well, they did! The Gameosaurus staff sit down on chairs to talk about UNCHARTED 2, BRUTAL LEGEND, A BOY AND HIS BLOB and DEMON'S SOULS.
Pat takes us all the way back to early 2009 to discuss STAR OCEAN: FIRST DEPARTURE for the PSP and ATLANTICA ONLINE for the PC.
We also put THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST to bed, and we prod Pat to tell us more about his increasingly populated personal life.
Sorry again for getting this up late. It's a job on top of a job, sometimes, and I work swing shift, so I'm not always feeling SUPER MOTIVATED when I stumble home around midnight every weekday. Solutions, anybody? 5-Hour Energy? Crystal? What should I do?
You'll all be proud to know that I exercised some financial restraint today. I basically had to choose between BORDERLANDS on the 360 and a haircut for the shaggiest of my two dogs. I came precariously close to picking up the game, but Vega can't see until her eyebrows get trimmed. And when she's as cute as this, priorities come into focus pretty quickly.
So we're all set with an appointment now, which means the only games I've been playing this week are two excellent downloadables: LOST WINDS: WINTER OF THE MELODIAS on WiiWare and TRINE on the PS3.
But worry not. I'm sure somebody among us will have plenty to say about Borderlands on next week's podcast, which will be posted promptly on Tuesday morning.
PODCAST
(right-click to save, use player below, or get the show on iTunes here)
Jurassic Radio #24: Dennis Hopkinser
00:00 - 46:27 -- What we've been playing
ACT BREAK -- Freefall Felix, "Tonight's the Night"
47:08 - 1:11:29 -- WINNING TIME: "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past," part 3
ACT BREAK -- Sonic Boom Six, "Monkey See Monkey Do"
1:12:12 - 1:23:26 -- The news, what's coming out
OUTRO -- Flight of the Conchords, "Too Many Dicks"
SHOW NOTES
Afrogamer -- A gamer’s wife describes the benefits of being married to a console slave and living in an entertainment hub. http://www.afrogamer.com/?p=1962
Destructoid -- Mario is dead. http://www.destructoid.com/former-journo-tells-miyamoto-that-mario-is-dead-152133.phtml
GamePolitics -- Gamefly has been having some trouble with the USPS lately. http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/10/16/busted-usps-worker-steals-over-2000-gamefly-games. Also, http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/10/13/gamefly-amp-usps-continue-fight
They Call Me…..Tim. Plus, a Tactics mod
So Gnathus and I put BRUTAL LEGEND to bed. If you're following my Twitter feed as fervently as you should be, you'll know I downgraded my assessment of the game. Ultimately, the further I got, the more it became a slog.
What interests me is the failure in video game basics from Schafer's crew. Last week there was the letter in which he told us we were playing his game wrong. First off all that information should be in the fucking game. We found not knowing what the hell to do quaint in THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST because that was made 20 years ago. Even forgiving that, the letter basically says: We (Double Fine) put in a bunch of RTS stuff, but it means fuck-all and you should just go around punching people. The sad thing is, I would have loved to have played that game. Instead, I'm stuck trying to herd my army of mouth-breathers toward my opponent's more flamboyantly dressed mouth-breathers and occasionally using my facemelter solo. Blech, the whole end of that game left a terrible taste in my mouth.
Now, down the rabbit hole to the opposite end of the spectrum with LFT: FINAL FANTASY TACTICS. This mod takes a very different approach to FFT, and it pays off in spades.
The original battle system was flawed because the job classes were designed to be more consistent with Final Fantasy tradition than with game balance. LFT has tweaked every class so that abilities fit into a particular role. Archers can ignore height, which lets them get to high ground to become more effective. Knights get innate damage reduction, making them hard to take down, while samurai do double damage with their melee attacks so that they can lead on the front lines. These changes encourage the player to create characters that excel at a job instead of simply slapping the best skill sets on knights and black mages, the classes with the best stats.
The battles have also been drastically redesigned. Monsters in random battles have been given many more abilities then they had in the original. The added variety makes them much harder to handle, especially at the beginning of the game, when your squad doesn't have many abilities of its own. I was easily outclassed by random encounters.
Once I found some traction I was fine, but the first few hours were brutal. The story battles have received the same treatment. The difficulty ramps up, not by simply boosting the numbers, but because enemies have better skills and come in more balanced groups. I always thought the AI in the original was bad, but now I feel like they were simply shorted by poor level design. With most levels having a well balanced group, I've found the computer giving me a run for my money on almost every stage.
LFT took my favorite game and improved it by leaps and bounds. Other than the increased difficulty level, I'd be hard pressed to recommend the original over LFT.
I've also been reading Scott Adams' Stick To Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain. If you're familiar with Adams' slightly Aspergian worldview, you'll enjoy this book. It's a collection of essays with Adams' take on everything from voter fraud to monkey god penises. A nice quick read that's easy to take in bite size chunks.