Hiiiii guys~ Remember two days ago when I said I would be playing various games for an hour each? Yeahhh, that plan is kinda on hold now~ Just for a little while so I can finish or definitively give up on Tokyo Xanadu eX+. Don’t blame me, blame Atelier Lydie & Suelle. I was trying to install and run it on my laptop and it was giving me all kinds of troubles. Slow framerate, controls not working, flat out not responding to anything.

I blame the laptop mostly, but either way it was a frustrating experience. Eventually I put the game aside and concentrated on getting the controller working. And after that, naturally I had to test the controller. And Tokyo Xanadu eX+ was right there on the desktop. So I set the alarm for an hour and dived back in and now I’m hooked again.

After all, it’s not like I dropped the game because I disliked it. My save file reads 25 hours for a good reason. When the game actually lets you play, combat is a lot of fun. Enemy density is a bit low, but the dungeon lengths are getting nice and long and the puzzles aren’t too annoying yet, so I look forward to every dive into the Eclipse. When they let me dive, that is. I timed today’s session and approximately 20 minutes of it was spend in the dungeon while the other 40 was spent watching cutscenes before and after the dungeon run. That’s rough.

IIRC the reason I stopped playing was because I took a long break, and when I came back I couldn’t remember any of the controls, or any of the story. I still barely remember the story except we’re trying to save an idol singer from ‘angel’ possession. And we’ve formed some kind of monster-busting team. Now I think of it, I was very annoyed back then because Falcom made me play for 20 hours THEN began to introduce the main story. But that’s just Falcom’s way, so I dunno why I bothered being upset.

So anyway, if not for the one hour alarm, I would have felt too lazy to jump back into Tokyo Xanadu eX+. This is like the third or fourth time I’ve walked away and every time I have to memorize all the controls again. This means jump, this plus this means jump attack, this is a power attack, this is a strike, and on and on and on and on. I’m terrible at keeping those kinds of things in mind. I prefer the Rune Factory kind of “mash X to slash” attack. But, as with most good ARPGs, once you do master the controls, it feels amazing running and dashing and hitting, racking up the combos and finally, finally shaving that last point of HP off a boss. There’s nothing like a good ARPG boss battle.

All this is to explain why I have to put the One Hour Review plan on hold so I can finish/drop Tokyo Xanadu eX+. I will play and comment on Atelier Lydie & Suelle ASAP if I can get it to run on my desktop. However if I wait too long, I’ll forget the controls in TX for the umpteenth time. Sure I could still go ahead and try other games for an hour like I said I would, but I don’t see the point. After all, the ultimate goal of the exercise was to find something I wanted to play, and I found something I want to play. Better to clear this out of the way first and then continue.

Also to be perfectly honest, I really don’t want to play FFXIII again. And The Alliance Alive, eh, if it weren’t from Furyu I wouldn’t touch it. That chibi graphical style reminds me too much of games like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy 3 DS, Bravely Default and Legend of Legacy. All of those memories churn up unpleasant feelings in me, so I’m not so hot on reliving them again by playing AA. I’m better off using the 3DS to play Picross e8 and e9 instead. Ooh, Picross💕

In summary: Tokyo Xanadu eX+ time! See you later!