I couldn’t decide what to play after “dropping” Dragon Quest VII last week, so I tried three different games on the VITA.
Lord of Apocalypse – Another in a line of Monster Hunter-like games for people who are too scared to actually play Monster Hunter. A couple of years ago I tried one (Frontier Gate Boost+) that was just too easy and boring. Lord of Apocalypse is interesting and as expected of Square-Enix the graphics aren’t half-bad, but it’s hard! I started out with twin blades, but I think I’ll switch to a one-handed sword and a shield for better defense and maneuverability. But the thing is, because it’s hard I’ll need to take some time to focus on it, try some different setups, repeat a few missions till I get the hang of stuff. And right now I’m looking for something to dive right into, so Lord of Apocalypse is on hold for now.
What chest? You’re one of the most covered-up characters in the game!
Demon Gaze – This is good stuff, as I knew it would be. I believe I mentioned before that I was expecting a cutesy skin on top of the usual Experience Inc. dungeon crawlers, and that’s exactly what it is. It’s a gameplay cross between Entaku no Seito and Stranger of Sword City with less clothes on all the women. Needless to say I’m having a blast. Played about 5 or 6 hours, took over all the circles in Red City and Slave Grave and promptly got Game Over’d by Mars when I tried to bully her again. She hasn’t seen the last of me! I’ll be back again once I finish Atelier Meruru Plus!
Atelier Meruru Plus – I started it a while ago and shelved it because it was too similar to Totori Plus before it. However last week Atelier Lulua was announced featuring Rorona’s adopted/homunculus daughter and reading the news made me feel all warm and fuzzy and Atelier-ish again so before I knew it I was playing Meruru again. BTW some people might want to argue with me about Lulua’s origins and father and that sort of thing. They overestimate Gust’s guts and willingness to piss off fans of other pairs if they were to put Rorona with Sterk, for example, or Cole. Besides, there’s a ton of foreshadowing about homunculi in this game, and it wouldn’t be the first time an RPG had a protagonist who was less than fully human. In any case, we’ll see when it comes out.
So that was the thought process that led to me picking up Atelier Meruru Plus for realz last week. My schedule for the rest of the year will be Meruru -> Demon Gaze -> Give DQVII another chance -> Lord of Apocalypse, unless something interferes.
Meruru Progress Report: Finished the first year successfully and got my objectives for the second year. Battle level 25-ish, Alchemy level 20. The levels really pile on early in the game, don’t they? There’s a lot to do so my head was spinning at first, but now I’ve fallen into a rhythm: synthesize till I run out of materials then go out and fulfill development quests. Rinse, repeat. Now that I have two Homs at my disposal, I shouldn’t run out of materials so easily. Current objective: explore all open areas on the maps so I can send the Homs to do more collection for me.
I should write a proper post with my thoughts about the story and characters (what have they done to Rorona?!?!) and gameplay and stuff, but Meruru Plus seems pretty short. Three years long with no room for extensions unless something happens to delay the kingdom’s takeover. At the rate I’m blazing through, I think I’ll just finish the whole thing and write my thoughts in one big post. See you then!
Update: Hit the final year and was presented with my “final” goal of getting a population of 30,000. That’s… a little too quick and a little too easy. Guess there’s going to be an extension. Wait, of course there’s going to be an extension. Of all the Atelier games with time limits I’ve played so far, only two or three of them have had no extensions. Only the DS games, IIRC? So the paragraph above was a bit naive of me, perhaps representing my desire for a game I can whizz through quickly and possibly replay. Anyway, I’ll be back after the third year as scheduled.
Funny, I just got Lord of Arcana a couple weeks ago and am playing it on the side. It’s certainly tough, I’d even say certain aspects are harder than certain Monster Hunter generations offer. I’m also playing through Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and that one is easier for sure. That mini status effect is the devil. Still, Arcana seems fine so far to me, and short-ish with the “story” part supposedly being over at chapter 6.
It’s a really nice game. I’m just bad at action RPGs.