I’ve mentioned this before, but I don’t write about every single game I play. There’s always a couple of games each year that I just couldn’t bring myself to play more than an hour or two of. They don’t deserve a post of their own, so every once in a while I gather them all together and do a mass post like this.
2012’s victims were as follows:
Popolocrois (PSP) – Cute but boring. I did actually play quite a lot of this and got as far as Pasela before the plentiful encounters with weak enemies did me in. The story wasn’t enough to overcome the lackluster battles and paper-thin characters.
Tears to Tiara: Kakan no Daichi (PSP) – A visual novel disguised as an SRPG. They let me fight ONE battle and then talked at me for the next 2 hours. And the battle they let me fight wasn’t all that interesting anyway. I like SRPGs, but even I have a limit for crap.
Tears to Tiara: Avalon no Nazo (PSP) – The sequel to the above. Again they let me fight ONE battle then spent the next hour talking. The battle system hadn’t changed much from the previous game, and since it was a direct sequel there were all these characters and in-jokes I didn’t get and didn’t care to get.
Generation of Chaos (PSP) – I thought it would be an SRPG, but it’s more like a board game. A bizarre, complicated, slow board game that I just can’t wrap my brain around. I quit within 30 minutes. Any game where I have to spend an hour reading a FAQ just to get anywhere is not a game for me. I love the art, but that’s about it.
Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos (PSP) – As with the preceding, it’s too board game-like for me. It would be one thing if the movement was like that and the battles were actual SRPGs battles, but this is more like Advance Wars. I’m not that crazy about Advance Wars.
Parappa the Rapper (PSP) – Kick! Punch! It’s all in the mind! This was kind of fun but I don’t have the energy needed for this kind of try-try-again gameplay. I fumbled my way through a few stages, but what I’d really like is to watch someone else play it. The raps are catchy!
Uta no Prince-sama: Sweet Serenade (PSP) – Looks like I downloaded the sequel/fandisk instead of the real game, so there’s no point to playing this. And since 1) I don’t like the looks of any of those 3 guys and 2) I got a full summary of the previous game right at the start, there’s no point going back to play the original either.
Venus and Braves (PSP) – I started this and fought quite a few battles. It’s got a different kind of battle system where 3 people line up in a vertical column and only the person right at the front can attack. When that character gets weaker, you switch them to the back of the line and attack with the next person. Just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s good though, and I thought it was a boring pain in the ass. Plus the game seems to be about vampires and I hate vampires. Put the two issues together and there’s no way I’m gonna play this.
Zwei!! (PSP) – The characters were cute and funny, but tiny and hard to see on the screen. I couldn’t get into the battle system. Since it’s an action/dungeon RPG that was the decisive final blow. And another nail in Falcom’s coffin as far as I go.
Oshare Princess 2 (DS) – A game about a fashion coordinator, or something like that. Might be good for someone looking for a kiddy dressup doll game with shoujo elements though. Unfortunately what I was really looking for was an RPG/SRPG with dressup elements. I could have learned to enjoy this if I’d tried a little more of it, but the tutorial dragged on forever and completely turned me off.
Amnesia (PSP) – The otome game, not Dark Descent. Let me quote an old African proverb: “‘The chick that will grow into a rooster can be spotted from birth.” In the same way, the visual novel that will bore me to tears can be spotted from its prologue. When the game opened with a 30-minute (and counting) monologue by a fairy, nobody had to tell me to turn off the PSP and walk away.
There will probably be many more in future, since I don’t plan to waste time pursuing failed ventures in 2013.
Parappa the Rapper:
Here you go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GxgB10dGYo
I purchased Zwei!! not so long ago (still waiting for it to arrive, actually^^). The screen shots are absolutely lovely, and gave me the feeling that this would be a action RPG/dungeon crawler of sorts, similar to Children of Mana on the DS. Seems from your comments on the game that I was right. ^_^
I was actually planning to use that game as a gentle reintroduction to japanese language, since action RPGs usually don’t feature mountains of complicated text. From what you’ve played, does this game a high level of japanese mastery or is it a simple, straightforward affair which would be appropriate to start afresh?
Also, I played Popolocrois and cleared it. I loved the simplicity and cuteness of it and actually found the battle system quite interesting, but the boss battles were totally underwhelming, which was really disappointing. I’m not asking for 30-minutes-long battles à la Seiken Densetsu 3, but maybe a little effort would be nice? It seems to me that many RPGs these days don’t really try hard enough in this department, sadly.
Zwei is very cute and the dialogue is very funny. The Japanese is simple enough that a beginner can figure it out, so don’t worry about that. The gameplay just didn’t agree with me, that’s all.