Pri Saga! Portable – Fei GET!

I’m happy because I’m finding more and more visual novels that I can stand to “play.” It seems that if the game is 1) Dialogue-based 2) Reasonably fast-paced and 3) Has at least one character I like, I can usually clear at least one route before giving up. That’s good for me to know because it helps me weed out the chaff much faster.

Pri Saga! Portable is one of those “magical high school” games, set in an alchemy academy whose name I have now forgotten. You play as Lemiris La Granche, second prince of the La Granche kingdom. At first you spend your days fooling around in town and whining about how boring your life is, but then a national crisis suddenly leaves you first in line for the throne! But there’s a catch: to be king you have to 1) Graduate at the top of your class in a subject and 2) Find yourself a queen.

Thus early on you pick a subject out of Archery, Swordsmanship, Spear fighting, Magic, Martial Arts, Medicine and Ninjutsu and then the rest of the game pretty much writes itself. …Or maybe not, because you can still choose to take classes in the other subjects from day to day. This affects your stats in that subject as well as the girl-related events you get to see. It might even be possible to get ALL the girls somehow. Apart from Miranda (the redhead), I can see myself getting together with any of them, so perhaps I should explore a harem option.

For my first playthrough though, I went with Fei in the Medicine department. She’s like a cross between Fumiko Yanagi of Tokimeki Memorial 4 and Asa-sempai of Shuffle!, especially the latter. Sweet girl, round face,  short hair in front, older than the protagonist, constantly gives him advice, suffers from some mysterious ailment or another that she doesn’t want to talk about, etc. etc.

In Fei’s route, she helps coach Lemiris from bottom of the class to close to the top. She then reveals that she’s suffering from a hereditary illness that will cause her to disappear. Lemiris sets out to look for a special plant that is the only thing that can save her. He ends up caught in a time portal and goes adventuring with his great-great grandfather Drake, who is also looking for the plant to save his girlfriend who just happens to be Fei’s great-great grandmother. In the end there’s only enough of the plant to save one girl, so Drake lets Lemiris have it, crisis averted, happy happy.

After that there’s a short skirmish with a neighboring country during which Fei finds out Lemiris is the prince. She panics a bit, he assures her he loves her anyway, they kiss, crisis averted again, happy happy. And so in the end he graduates successfully and becomes a legendary king who carries out lots of medical reforms in the country with Fei at his side. They also set up a medical school, and the route ends with Lemiris watching Fei lecture and thinking romantic thoughts.

It sounds like a lot to write out, but it didn’t take very long to play. Maybe about 5 hours? Thereabouts. The story was cliched, but it was also simply and quickly told. Fei is a sweetheart and my kind of girl. Lemiris can be a douche, but he usually pulls through when the occasion call for it. The other characters pop in and out from time to time, but never piss me off or get in the way. In short, it was a fun experience.

So fun, in fact, that I can’t decide whether to do one more route or whether to quit while I’m ahead. Short, sweet game with interesting characters, what’s not to like? But at the same time Fei’s route was satisfying in all kinds of ways. Why play again and risk ruining everything? Hmm… I’m going to have to ponder this a bit more. I’ll start by doing a little research and seeing if there’s a True End or something similar out there. If there is, I’ll go for that. If not, I’ll think some more. Hmmmmmmmmm…

Oh, btw, I’m also several hours into Princess Maker 5. I thought I’d be done by now, but I’ve barely finished the first year of 8. Long game is LOOOONG. Will comment on that once I’ve gone a little further.

Finished Zill O’ll Infinite Plus – Final roundup (spoilers)

40 hours. About 20 hours more than was good for me. Zill O’ll Infinite Plus is a good, interesting game with (apparently) over 50 different endings, but when a single playthrough takes that long to finish, I pity da fools who try to get them all. After all the trouble I spent cultivating Angirdan (dead), Estelle (dead) and Atreiya (dead), I ended up getting a short, half-assed ending with Oiphe/Aoife. I can’t remember exchanging more than a few words with her, but at that point I was just glad to be done.

Seeing as I’ve spent the better part of the month talking about Zill O’ll, I’m not going to bore you (or myself) any more with it. Today I’ll share my final impressions of the overall game and then move on to other things.

The Good

+ Character glossary fleshes out the world and the story
+ Characters gain experience and level up even if they’re not in your party
+ Free-roam scenario gives you a high level of independence
+ Great soundtrack
+ Lots and lots of characters
+ Multiple endings. Good luck getting them without a guide
+ Lovely character designs
+ Random battles can be avoided using skills
+ Sidequests are fun, largely optional and fairly rewarding
+ Soul growth system lets you control how your characters grow

The Ungood

– Almost everyone important will die if you play without a guide
– Colors are all browns and greys and yellows, very depressing
– Each playthrough takes too long, even if you don’t waste time doing quests like I did
– Grimdark stories/histories are not my thing
– Low level of challenge except for final bosses (might be a good thing, depending on your tastes)
– Lots and lots of loading, lots and lots of slowdowns
– Once you hit the right triggers, history goes on with or without you (might be a good thing, depending on your tastes)
– Too many useless skills, abilities and items
– You can only switch party members in one place on the map

In spite of these few complaints, I rate Zill O’ll pretty highly overall. The story was great. Dark, and slightly hard to follow without paying attention, but great nevertheless. The mute main character somewhat detracted from my ability to immerse myself in the game’s world, but apart from that I had a fantastic time. I don’t know if I have the stamina to ever play this again, but I wouldn’t mind, say, watching all the different endings to see what I missed. It was a good game.

In other news, I’m wrapping up my first route in Pri Saga Portable. Should write about that next time. It also turns out that my family has both The Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii. I’ve played a little bit of each, and to be honest, I don’t like them. But it’s way too early to tell for sure, so I’ll devote more attention to each of them in the coming weeks. Oh, my PS2. ;___; My poor PS2.

Zill O’ll Infinite Plus: Progress Update (spoilers)

No, I’m still not done with Zill O’ll Infinite Plus. 30 hours and 59 minutes in, and I’m starting to despair of ever finishing this game.

…Okay, that’s a lie.

Actually the final dungeon opened up to me about 2 hours ago. Which means I could have finished the game by now if I’d wanted to. IF I’d wanted to.

What’s holding me back is the sheer WTFery of the story events going on right now. It all makes perfect sense (it took a while, but I’ve pieced most things together), but still makes you go “WTH, why?!”  The main thing is the way all the NPCs and some of my player characters are dying like flies.

First I was following Angirdan around trying to conquer Rostorl and Aquiris. He told me to skedaddle for a while and come back later. A few days later I’m halfway across the continent when bam, Angirdan dies. Whaaat?! So I rush over to Aquiris to try to find out what happened, just to be told that Estelle, one of my party members, has been kidnapped. So I head over to the desert to save her, a lot of stuff goes down and bam, Estelle dies. Self-sacrifice to save the world.

After that the story triggers flow quick and free, but just as things seem to be settling down I get the chance to go chase Nemea. Poof, he vanishes on me, sent to the netherworld. Just as I step outside and head to Rostorl, bam, Xenetes is dead. Queen Eris is dead. Irene has joined Enchant, but is never seen again. Atreiya, Lemuon and Shari have vanished and I still haven’t found them. I play for a little bit longer and King Seremon of Rostorl dies by my hand. Then the next time I’m just passing by Enchant, I find out the whole city has been wiped out. I’m forced to kill Zagiv and Zophiel because they attacked me first, but this does nothing to bring back the people of Enchant. This means Belzevar is probably dead as well.

You still with me so far? If you are, you shouldn’t be. You should be getting an FAQ so you can play properly unlike me. If you play without a guide, everyone important will die. If you’re one of those people disappointed in how happy-go-lucky and happily-ever-after current jRPG stories are, this is most definitely the game for you.

At this point, even if I succeed in stopping the dark god from being resurrected, half of the continent is already in ruins. And I’m no closer to finding my brother Roy than I was at the start. *sigh* Still, needs must. I think everything that can go wrong has gone wrong, so I just need to finish and be done with this.

In other news, my PS2 is dead. Either I buy a new one or I give up on playing Disgaea and Summon Night 3 & 4 forever. Going to ponder my options for the next couple of days.

How NOT to play Zill O’ll Infinite Plus

I mentioned in the previous post that I’d been spending all my time doing sidequests instead of advancing the main story in Zill O’ll Infinite Plus. For the sake of anyone who plays this game one day, let me warn you: do not do this. It is a terrible way to play the game, for several reasons.

1. The game is longer than I’d thought. Spend 20 hours killing time and you’ll be sick of the game when things really get under way.

2. Since the game is long, you’ll end up getting stronger and richer anyway. No need to rush to get it all done at the start of the game.

3. You’ll be going back and forth between places and people once the ‘real’ story begins. If you’ve been going back and forth all along, you’ll be sick and tired of the various locations and people and won’t be able to enjoy them like you should.

4. While random battle enemies scale to your level, story enemies don’t. When your HP is in the 800s, you’ll be beating up on guys with 60 HP. You bully.

5. 20 hours is waaaay too much time to waste on random sidequests, no matter how much fun they appear at first. You will get bored, and it will happen when you need to be doing quests to progress certain character stories, and then you’ll be sorry.

6. While completing quests with characters in your party is one way to raise affection, this seems to happen very slowly and erratically. Any character whose affection can only be raised that way can’t be very story-relevant, so you might want to leave them to subsequent playthroughs – once you’re sure you like them and like the game enough to play again and again.

If I could turn (turn), turn back the hands of time, then I wouldn’t spend~ so much time dilly-dallying~. In my defense, “Go do Guild quests until we tell you otherwise” is what I was told at the start of the game. It’s not my fault I got addicted and overdosed and now find it hard to continue the game.

That’s not to say I’ve quit, though. It hasn’t gotten that bad yet. I have been exploring other avenues though. Tried one or two games, and I’ve been seriously ‘playing’ Pri Saga Portable, a cliched but highly enjoyable visual novel, for the past 3 hours or so. I’m thinking of taking a break from Zill O’ll, but I fear I’d never come back. Gotta be strong!

The Basics of Zill O’ll Infinite Plus

Zill O’ll Infinite Plus isn’t a game many people have heard of, much less played, so I’ll start out today with a basic introduction.

Story

You get to pick your Main Character’s gender and personality through a quiz at the beginning. Apparently this affects where you start, who your starting partner is and what your initial motivation is.

In my case, there’s a dark god named Ulg somewhere, and some evil people are looking for dark relics to try and revive him. MC’s dad was killed by one such person and her brother went missing, so she’s roaming the world looking for revenge and her brother, in that order.

There’s also plenty going on about fallen heroes and corrupt kings and palace intrigues and warring nobles, plus a healthy heaping of fantastic racism (elves hate dwarves, humans hate everyone, cones hate humans, boldans are just chilling) but so far I haven’t had to get gotten involved in anything too heavy yet. My involvement will probably change how history works out one way or another, but since I haven’t gotten that far yet I can’t say any more.

Characters

Mine’s a redheaded girl I named Shenando, just to show off my awesome naming sense. I have a partner named Sera who is also looking for my brother Roy… I think? Anyway, we’re working together. My two other party members are named Luluantha and Fety, but as far as I can tell they’re not important to the story.

Apart from them, Zill O’ll seems to have a LOT of important player characters and NPCs, and just as many unimportant ones who still happen to have portraits. The scantily-clad hussy on the cover appears to be one of them, though she has only shown up once in the 17 hours I’ve played so far. If you meet a character and spend enough time talking to them and progressing their events, they may eventually join your party.

Ideally I should be mixing and matching parties, but I’ve stuck with a set party for the following reasons: 1) I’m used to them. 2) I know their strengths, weakness and abilities and how to work around them 3) I can only get one person’s ending anyway, so there’s no point raising everyone’s affection all the time. 4) Switching characters can only be done in one specific location on the map, and I don’t feel like trudging there all the time. 5) You need special one-use-only ores to strengthen weapons and armor. Once I’ve spent the money and effort powering one person up, I don’t want to let them go till I’ve gotten my money’s worth.

Gameplay

The world map is in board-game format, with your MC as a piece. It reminds me of Grand Knights History, as does the heavy use of yellow and brown tones in the color palette. Moving from place to place takes days off the calendar, and supposedly specific things happen at specific times of the year. The only thing I’ve experienced is my “birthday” so far.

While there is some story progression to be done, all I’ve been doing right now is sidequest upon sidequest upon sidequest. Sidequests give you 1. Money 2. Soul points (more on those in a sec) 3. EXP, and are the best way to power yourself up. They come in four varieties: 1. Fetch quests 2. Escort quests 3. Extermination quests and 4. Search-and-rescue quests. Nothing too complicated.

Souls: The souls you get from quests are plugged into the soul grid seen in the screenshot above. As you add soul points, the “souls” move closer and closer towards the left (in the direction of the “Get” arrow) and eventually you “get” a soul. Souls simply shape the character’s growths upon leveling up. Brave souls will get more STR and VIT, Cool souls get more AGI and DEX, Search souls get more INT and MIN, etc. You can switch souls on the fly to help your characters grow more effectively, although STR, AGI and DEX seem to be the most important stats.

Skills: Unlocking souls unlocks different Attack, Magic, Support and Auto skills. These can be purchased with skill points, earned mainly from random battles.

Battles: Standard turn-based battles. Enemies can be seen on the map and can be approached from behind to get a free turn. There’s an element system that’s actually pretty important: Light <-> Dark, Fire > Water > Earth > Wind > Fire. Enemies level up as you do, plus you get more EXP from quests than from fighting, so…yeah. Luckily there’s an ability that makes you invisible to all the enemies in one room, and Escape works 100% of the time so…yeah.

Sound and Graphics

The soundtrack is very, very good. Like, “trying really, really hard to make this good” kind of good. I haven’t heard a soundtrack this overwrought and this painstakingly plotted out since FF9. What stops me from calling it “excellent” is that same “trying too hard” feeling and the fact that while most tunes are good, a few of them don’t really fit the mood when they appear.

Voice acting is non-existent.

Graphics are late PS2 level. Lots of yellow and brown and blooooooom. I love the character designs though.

Progress Report

Level 32, 17 hours, almost no story done at all. I love not having to progress until I’m good and ready, and I think I’m ready now. Not sure what I need to do and where I need to go to move on, but there’s an “Information” option that lets you consult your party members. One of them is bound to know what I’m supposed to be doing right now.

Everything else I’m doing right now

Not playing anything else. I’m back home for the first time in a while, which means I have access to the family Wii. I don’t think there’s anything more interesting on it than Wii Fit and Wii Sports, but I’ll have a footle around to see if they’ve bought anything interesting. I also want to start a couple of other things soon.

That’s it for today!