Suikoden II – Tiring

Suikoden II. 3 hours in. Been betrayed twice and seen three destroyed villages/forts. This is about par for the course for a Suikoden game, I guess. I’m trying hard not to get attached to my MC’s childhood friend Jowy or his sister Nanami because either one or both of them will be killed/will switch sides and force me to kill them. I’m not even spoiling here, this is just basic Suikoden logic.

Obviously I can’t get into a game when I approach it with such a pessimistic mindset. Every step I take on the map just depresses me even further. Every village I enter just has me counting the seconds until something unpleasant happens. Every NPC with a portrait just has me groaning when I imagine what ridiculous, unnecessary hoop I’m going to have to jump through to recruit them. I’d forgotten how much I dislike (apparently I’m alone on this) the recruiting aspect of the Suikoden games.

I should really just give up and use a FAQ to make things easier on myself. For one thing it would have saved me a lot of time wandering around trying to progress the story when what I was supposed to do was remove 2 members from my party and then visit Toto Village. How the ****ing **** was I supposed to know that? *sigh*

Still, it’s only been 3 hours. I normally don’t even write impressions this early. It’s just that it’s taken me three days to get this far because I play a few minutes, then I do something else. Then I play another couple of minutes, then I do something else again. In fact Suikoden II has helped me rediscover my love for Freecell and Solitaire (G.O.A.T.) and the game itself isn’t a lost cause. I haven’t even gotten a proper castle, and no True Runes have shown up yet, so there’s still a long way to go. I’ll write more at the 10 hour mark, if I ever make it that far.

Played Really? Really! DS. It’s aight.

Really? Really! is one of the games I was somewhat interested in playing when I first started this blog, but I forgot about it pretty quickly and never tried it until now. Shuffle! is one of the few anime harem shows I actually enjoyed watching, and even though I hated, and continue to hate Asa-sempai, it made perfect sense to me that she and Rin ended up together.

I’ve almost entirely lost interest in the series since then, though I do clearly remember all the characters. There’s also a bonus character in the form of a “forgotten childhood friend” known as Sakura. Pretty sure she wasn’t in the anime.

The wiki description says it all. Kaede has lost her memories and is in a coma. Rin and all his buddies have to dive into her subconscious and help her regain it. Alas, due to the magic accident that caused her amnesia, those memories have been fragmented and falsified in parts. Your job, therefore, is to pick up ‘keywords’ that represent the truth and then ‘present’ them at the correct moments in order to correct Kaede’s memory.

It’s 95% visual novel, but you do get to make a few moves here and there. When Rin comes across a contradiction, he goes “Objection!” Phoenix Wright-style (complete with cheap suit) and the game allows you to pick one of several keywords to straighten things out. On your first day at school, for example, Itsuki appears as a particularly hideous girl. Rin couldn’t correct that fast enough. Shortly afterwards Mayumi=Thyme shows up as a busty(!) idol, which completely crashes Kaede’s “system” with its sheer impossibility. And so on, and so forth.

All in all it reminded me of a less-complicated Time Hollow: you go through a scene, you see what’s wrong, the game prompts you to fix it, and you fix it. You keep moving, you find something else wrong, you fix that. There’s no confusion anywhere, there’s no chance of invoking the system at the wrong time and it’s pretty obvious what you’re supposed to use at each point. If you proceed far enough with a scene, you end up fixing everything there is to fix in that ‘memory’ and then you get to see the events of that day from Kaede’s point of view.

I played for 3 hours, including the lengthy prologue, and unlocked the first memory. Lost interest after that because even though I imagine the story will get more and more twisted and the choices less and less obvious as the game progresses, I sadly feel nothing for Kaede and have no personal stake in getting her back to normal. If it had been Primula on the other hand, we might have had something to talk about. Fans of the Shuffle! series might enjoy it. Fans of regular visual novels, not so much, because this game assumes you know all the characters and at least some of the storylines from the main game.

It really didn’t help that the game’s jokes were old by the 30-minute mark but they just wouldn’t stop repeating them. Kaede loves Rin, we get it. Midoriba likes girls, we get it. Mayumi is flat-chested, we get it. It’s funny the first few times but after that, come on. I like snarky protagonists, in moderation, but when the years pass and the jokes stay the same, it’s time to hang it up.

Moving on, I would have started Suikoden II by now, but I took a few hours to recap the first game by reading a Let’s Play of it. As usual I’m surprised at how clearly I remember games I enjoyed playing, even after 10 years have passed. I even remembered where all the sucker punches were. Mathiu! ;______; IstillSad. Thanks to that I am now slightly psyched to start the next one, though I just know it’s going to depress me. More on that as the tale unfolds.

Fuurai no Shiren 2 – I give up

Waaaah! I’ve been on 23 adventures so far and I still can’t beat that stupid tower place with the ceremony thing going on! I haven’t even made it to the boss since, I keep getting ganged up on and barely escaping with my life around floors 15-17. I go back, buff my shield/axe, train up a bit, head out… I thought if I repeated that several times I might be able to clear at least that tower, but this isn’t working! I always run out of helpful scrolls or good healing items at some point, or those pesky ghost soldiers possess something and make my life hell, or my most important goods get cursed, it just never ends! Waaaaaaaah!

So I give up. Fuurai no Shiren 2 Sabaku no Majou was way more fun for me than the first game, but after fighting the same enemies 20+ times, even I must throw in the towel. There’s still Shiren 4 and 5 for the DS that I’d like to play sooner or later, though I don’t expect to get any further than I did with this one.

Moving on, it’s July! Which means it’s time to tackle another item from my resolutions list. It was a toss up between Tales of Innocence and Suikoden II, but 1) Star Ocean and Tales games have pretty similar battle systems. I need some refreshment, and 2) I’ve already tried a bit of ToI before and I didn’t like it much, so I’m not in a real hurry to get back to it. I’d heard a lot about Star Ocean, I finally tried it and it was pretty good, so maybe Suikoden II will be an equally pleasant surprise. Must try it and see.

Fuurai no Shiren 2 – Sabaku no Majou

a.k.a. Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer DS 2. I have very fond memories of the first game, even though I died 14 times in 4 hours and concluded it just wasn’t for me. I’m playing Sabaku no Majou with the same “I’ll quit when it gets too much for me” mindset, but after 6 hours and only 3 deaths, I think I’m finally getting the hang of this Mystery Dungeon stuff.

I’ve been able to make better progress this time due to a number of factors:

1. This game has more of a story than the previous one. It involves a demon castle and a princess with special powers, nothing too unique but fun in its own way. I’ll save you, Princess… whatever your name is!

2. The game is easier because you don’t start over from the very first dungeon whenever you die. You do lose your items and go back to level 1, but you get to try again from the bottom of the dungeon you were currently working on.

3. It’s also a lot easier because there are helpful items like a bank, recovery pots, revival herbs (auto-revive once), Take Home scrolls (flee the dungeon with everything you’ve got), healing bracelets, etc. All these things may have been in the first game, but I never got far enough to find out.

4. I actually paid attention to the explanations and instructions this time round. Last time I tried to play anyhow and figure things out as I went along, but this time I took the time to pay attention to what people said and what items do. Thanks to that I’ve been able to make good use of the storehouse, the blacksmith and the training dojo to prolong my life.

5. I actually use whatever I pick up this time round. Trying to hoard items when you’re on the verge of death is an extremely foolish idea. Why die now when you can die later? So I’ve been using the scrolls and staves and pots like there’s no tomorrow. You’ll lose them all if you get yourself killed anyway.

6. I’ve gotten a bit more experience in dungeon crawling over the past year and a half, and now I’m used to unfair dungeon design and cheating bosses. I don’t take it personally when I die any more, it’s all part of the game.

Doesn’t mean I’m going to finish it, but I’m doing to play a little longer and see where the game takes me. If nothing else I’d like to beat the battle in the Tenshuukaku place where the full-moon ceremony is being held. I made it to the boss last time, but I had no healing items left so he killed me in one hit ;___; Won’t make the same mistake next time.

Btw, you might have been expecting me to be playing Phantasy Star Portable 2 by now because of my last post. I thought of it. I want to. But I’m holding myself back for three reasons. One, I just finished playing an Action RPG in the form of Star Ocean. Two, it hasn’t even been three months since I finished the first game, gotta let a little time pass first. Three, there’s no Phantasy Star Portable 3. If I rush into this and finish it too quickly then I won’t have anything else to look forward to. Then what’ll I do, huh? Huh? Sega should take stuff like that into account when designing games from now on.

Is this love?

I wanna love you and treat you right;
I wanna love you every day and every night:
We’ll be together with a roof right over our heads;
We’ll share the shelter of my single bed;
We’ll share the same room, yeah! – for Jah provide the bread.

Is this love – is this love – is this love –
Is this love that I’m feelin’?
Is this love – is this love – is this love –
Is this love that I’m feelin’?
I wanna know – wanna know – wanna know now!
I got to know – got to know – got to know now!