Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari – 21 hours in

If you animate this and run it for 21 hours straight you’ll know exactly how it feels to play this game.

This post will contain plotline spoilers. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

21 hours in, and it’s going to stay at 21 hours for a while because I’m taking a break from this game. It’s just too boring. I’ve been doing the same mission non-stop since the game started and I’m sick and tired of it. “Save the civilians.” Everything is “save the civilians.” Civilians this, civilians that. Save save save save, I’M SICK OF SAVING CIVILIANS!

I’ve played a lot of repetitive games in my time – I’m a Harvest Moon fan, after all – but Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari takes the cake. Every single mission plays out exactly the same way: run down hallways for 10 minutes, meet NPC, warp back to headquarters, repeat. I said this back when I was only 7 hours in, little knowing that I’d be typing the same thing 14 hours later.

Stupid excuse to prolong stupid game is stupid. Rescue civilians for 21 hours my ass. Instead of Final Promise Story they should call it Banal Premise Story.

For much of the game you don’t have a choice, though. If you don’t have 1000 people saved by a certain time (02:05, I believe), you get an automatic bad ending. Now that I have 1180 people saved, I thought I’d try a different kind of mission, an extermination one. As you might expect, it played out almost exactly like the rescue mission: run down hallways for 10 minutes, fight same enemies you’ve been fighting all along, warp back to headquarters, repeat. I thought they’d have special enemies to fight or special rewards, but it was regular items and regular rewards. B-o-r-i-n-g.

I don’t get why it has to be you doing all this grunt work anyway. You’re Messiah, the elite of the elite. Running menial errands should be the job of the ordinary soldiers and you should be on the frontlines. If you could keep the enemies from getting in in the first place, the whole rescue arc would go much smoother and faster. It makes no sense at all.

Plus if you’re so elite, surely you should be able to carry out missions more efficiently. Instead of going on one mission, coming back to report, going on another, etc, the missions should be consecutive. You’re already in wireless contact with mission control, so it would make more sense to take on several at once, do them all in a row and then progress the story. Either that or split the party into two so the three thumb-twiddlers have something to do when not in your party. Do I have to think of everything? I’m starting to feel sorry for myself, putting up these incompetent numbskulls.

Sasha, token loli

While we’re on the topic of feeling sorry for oneself, please note that Ceres is perma-banned from my party. In fact, characters named Ceres are banned from all parties in any game I play from now until forever. Right after my last post, about 15 hours in, she had a big “crisis of confidence” and locked herself in her room for several missions, forcing me to trot out and level up Sasha, a character I hadn’t used in over 12 hours. Sasha was only level 10 and leveling her up until she was any use at all was hard work, to say the least.

At first her levels rose rapidly, then they capped off and she’s been several levels behind the guys ever since. Right now she’s level 46 while they’re 50, and she probably won’t catch up till 65-ish, by which time the game will be long over. Even Cain still hasn’t fully caught up, and he’s been in my party almost forever. If I’d known Ceres was going to fail me, I would have started using Sasha way back then. She’s an excellent healer (and a terrible everything else).

And the nerve of that Ceres, after dumping me and running away to sob in her room she comes back later and is like “I’ll never run away again.” Okay, now, first off I never wanted you in my party. You wouldn’t even be a Messiah if you’d had the sense to put your little family drama on hold for just 5 minutes while we warped back to headquarters. If you hadn’t distracted Joshua and stolen his weapon at a critical moment he’d still be alive and you’d be in the kitchen where you belong so don’t give me that crap! So first you forced your way into Messiah, then you walked out when I needed you, and now you want back in? HELL. NO. The name ‘Ceres’ will never be mentioned on this blog again.

Enough about the stupid characters. The real reason I’m putting BPS on ice that I started playing Jeanne d’Arc yesterday, and I’m having a fantastic time with it. Bright colors! Missions that differ from each other! A non-milquetoast protagonist! No random battles! Music that actually fits the mood! Flaws I’m ignoring because I’ve been starved for an SRPG! It’s been so long since I played an ordinary strategy RPG with no silly gimmicks or weird mechanics. What was the last one, Luminous Arc 3? Going to be hard going back to BPS after this.

Half-year resolutions

I forgot to make New Year’s gaming resolutions this January, but better late than never. Last time I made them I managed to play all those games before the year was out, so I’m hoping I’ll have the same luck/leisure this time round. There are only six months left till 2012 (where does the time go?) so I’ll limit the list to six items for simplicity.

1. Nora to Toki no Koubou (DS): I’ve stopped following the news on this. Apart from cancellation there’s nothing they can say or do that would stop me from playing it. Even if they come out tomorrow and announce it’s now an FPS, I’m still going to play it.

2. Jeanne d’Arc (PSP): I hear it’s an excellent SRPG, and that’s all I need to hear. To be blunt, I don’t know anything about it except that, but there’s no way on earth it could be worse than, say, Tactical Guild, so I’m going to play it, and soon.

3. Tokimeki Memorial 4 (PSP): I love the Girls’ Side games, but apart from the first TM game on the SNES, the others haven’t done anything for me. It’s not that I don’t enjoy chasing girls, just that TM2 and 3 looked and felt clumsy so I’ve never played more than a few “days” of each. Maybe the 4th time is the charm.

4. Summon Night 3 (PS2): It’s been over a year since I played Summon Night 2 (which cooled my Summon Night ardor for a while) so I’m ready to jump back in the fray. With a few exceptions I’ve gotten used to playing my SRPGs on handhelds so it’ll be a bit of an adjustment to make, but I’ll get used to it soon enough. I just hope my old PS2 can take it.

5. Persona (PSP): I seriously overdosed on Shin Megami Tensei and related games in 2009 and 2010, which is why I haven’t even looked at one so far this year. I was going to play Devil Survivor 2 instead, but I just can’t work up the enthusiasm. The lame-ass ending I got (Gin route) in the last game still rankles a bit, plus I want to get it in English if possible so I’ll add that to my 2012 list.

6. The World Ends With You (DS): To be honest, I don’t really want to play this. Nothing I’ve ever seen or heard about it even remotely implies that it’s something I’d enjoy. But someone’s been nagging me for years to give it a shot, so I’m going to do it just to get it over with. If I get a pleasant surprise, cool, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’ll fit other games in there when I get the chance, like the upcoming UnchainBlades Rexx which I’m more than a little excited about. The main character’s design looks more than a little “inspired” by Jin from Shining Force Feather.

I was going to say Sega should totally sue but it turns out they have the same (evidently unimaginative) character designer. One more reason to look forward to it.

Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari – 14 hours in

Quite a bit has changed since I last posted about this game. I was 7 hours in then, now I’m 14 hours along. My party was around level 18, now they’re between levels 30 and 34. I’ve found out more about the story, why Sabi Chantier machines keep attacking people, why it’s so important to rescue townspeople and what my final solution is to all this fighting.

My party has changed as well. I decided that I needed a healer because healing items were costing me a fortune, so I switched Mallarme out for Ceres (very, very reluctantly). Ceres appears to be one of those characters who are useless until they learn their best attacks at very high levels. She only just learned her first All attack, and while it’ll probably be powerful once I’ve maxed it out, I’m not impressed at all right now.

In any case, training up low-level characters is hard in this game. It’s been several hours and several levels later, and Cain and Ceres haven’t quite caught up to Wolf and Rushdie yet. Cain is close, Ceres is about 4 levels behind. So you have to pick a party quickly and stick with it, none of this trying to keep everyone evenly-leveled stuff. Unless you really, really, really like grinding.

It’s mainly your equipment and skills that make the greatest difference to your death or survival in battle, but you can’t get skills without leveling up, so they’re linked. Skills work like this: every time you level up, you get a point to assign to a certain skill. Leveling up certain skills allows you to unlock other ones, and so it goes. It’s not a new system, but Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari is more forgiving than most similar systems, in that it allows you to easily reset and reassign your points any time you like. In exchange for a hefty amount of money, but what’s money when your characters are getting killed?

Now that by trial and error I have chanced upon attack and support skill configurations that work great for me, battles are relatively easier now. I recommended getting Astral Edge in the last post, but now I realize Defense Line (gotten by leveling up Wolf’s Sword Taunt a few times) is better for all but emergency cases, so get that instead.

For random battles, I leveled up Rushdie’s  Sleep Attack (暗示：碧) and got the updated version (暗示：翠) which hits all enemies. I have it maxed right now. Words can’t express just how life-saving it is to put even one enemy in a gang to sleep. Since Rushdie almost always goes first (with a little help from accessories), he can strike with it right at the beginning of the battle, and he’ll usually get at least half of the enemies, usually more.  Just bring it, bad guys! He had an equivalent that paralyses enemies (暗示：緋), but even grunts tend to be resistant to paralysis so I cancelled that and redistributed the points.

That’s not the only reason why Rushdie is my favorite party member, though. Apart from his speed and his sleep attack, he also has an ice attack, Tsumi no Rakuin II (罪の烙印II) that hits every enemy on the field. The attack description said it only hits one, so I ignored the move for a long time, then I tried it on a whim and WHOA! My attack pattern now goes: first turn, put most of them to sleep, second turn, put them on ice. For weak enemies, this is a one-hit kill. Enemies that survive will almost certainly be picked off by my other party members in rapid succession.

When it comes to boss battles, though, Cain does the most damage, hands down. His fire attack (揺らめく紅刃) hits even bosses for a minimum of 300 when maxed out, and his HP and VIT are only second to Wolf’s. In fact, he still has all his SP intact because he doesn’t go down easy. At first his low MP was a liability, but it’s come up quite a bit now. I also have a lot of MP refilling items I haven’t had a chance to use, and in a pinch I can always use his SP move to refill everyone’s MP. He’s pretty awesome.

It’s rare to find RPGs where physical and magical attacks are perfectly balanced and do equal damage. Usually one will dominate throughout, or be more powerful at the beginning and get weaker as the game progresses. In this game “pure” physicals were better at first, but now magic and magic-based physicals are overwhelmingly more powerful. When you level up or when you rest your MP is automatically refilled, so you don’t have to hold back on the heavy stuff either.

Okay, I’m definitely getting cocky now. I’m almost done with the West Gate, then there’s the Main Gate to go through, which should be the final dungeon unless they pull a surprise on me. Maybe the enemies there will kick my attitude back into shape. Or maybe I’ll ride roughshod over them in my usual manner. No clue who the final boss or the mastermind behind the war is so far, but the final confrontation should be fun either way.

Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari – 7 hours in

Also known as Final Promise Story, imageepoch’s first release under their “jprg” brand. I won’t say it’s one of the reasons why I bought a PSP, but it certainly helped. I try not to follow game development too closely, because then when it comes out you’re not surprised or impressed at all, but I liked the little I saw of this, so I started playing it a few days ago.

I haven’t gotten too far yet, just finished killing the boss in the screenshot way down below. He doesn’t have a name but BOY does he pack a punch. I grinded Wolf from level 14 to 18 and switched out Gyro for Mallarme before I could take him down without losing any SP. That screenshot down there is probably from very early in the development process, firstly because that annoying Lissete is missing, and also because Ceres hasn’t joined your party at that point. By the way, it’s blatantly obvious who’s going to join and who’s not, because they all have rooms in your headquarters from the start. Thanks for spoiling, imageepoch.

About the game itself, Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari is a dungeon crawler. A pretty, glorified dungeon crawler, but a dungeon crawler nevertheless. It’s about Yggdra, a country on the verge of ruin and the last survivors currently making their last stand in one part of the stupidly vast castle. The main character Wolf Stingray (yes, that’s really his name) and his team are charged with rescuing the last 2,000 civilians and bringing them to safety. So the game consists of taking a mission – go save these guys – running down looooong corridors for ages and ages, finding the NPC(s) you need to save and fighting off the enemies attacking them. Then you go back and repeat the process again.

Every time you finish a mission, time passes. Every couple of missions Lissete (your controller/navigator/manager) will come up with a mission that progresses the story, you’ll do it, and then it’s back to grunt missions again. It’s very repetitive, but that’s a dungeon crawler for you. I’m astonished by the relative lack of urgency in this game, though. Your country is mostly destroyed and 90% of the citizens have been wiped out, but still everyone in the Grand Hall is just chilling. There are soldiers all over the place guarding empty rooms or just chatting in the hallway. I was seriously expecting a scene out of Gone with the Wind or something – injured soldiers, harried nurses, wailing relatives, etc etc, but even the people you save are just like, “Hey, y’all, wassup?” Well, maybe not so casual but not quite panicky either.

Anyway, it’s a dungeon crawler, which means the battle system is the most important thing. You take four characters into battle, and you get a first-person perspective like old-school Dragon Quest. It looks like this:

I only chose this development screenshot so I could show you the boss that kicked my ass so hard. In the finalized battle system, there’s this annoying girl perched in the top right corner who just repeats the same words over and over and over again: “The enemy had changed its target! The enemy has changed its target! The enemy has changed its target!” ad nauseam. There she is, right there:

Btw, “The enemy has changed its target” indicates that the enemy is going to attack whoever attacked it or healed last. They especially like to gang up on anyone who uses healing magic or items, which makes healers like Sasha pretty hard to use until Wolf is strong enough to draw all their attention. Ideally you want enemies to attack Wolf at all times because he has the highest HP and Defence. He even has two skills, Sword Taunt and Astral Edge, that gets the enemy to focus on him. If you play this, try to get Astral Edge as soon as possible. It consumes SP, but it’s so useful I use it regardless. I’ll stop when Wolf’s SP goes down to 20.

The overriding principle in the battles is this: You have to keep your allies from being KO’ed if at all possible. Imageepoch heavily promoted Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari‘s “Death is Permanent” system, but that’s not quite the case. See the SP stat under HP and MP? When your allies get hit after they’re KO’ed, it starts to go down. When it reaches 0, they release one final, mighty attack and then they kick the bucket for good. Incidentally this refills the SP of all your other members, so I’m thinking of sacrificing Sasha whenever it becomes necessary. I hate her. I hate Ceres more, but I’m positive I’d be Game Over’ed if I knocked her off, so too bad.

I am not a fan of the female characters in this game. Lissete would be okay if she didn’t keep harassing me in battle. My kingdom for a “Shut Lissete up” option. Ceres’s high-pitched squeal grates on my ears and her “naive princess trying to be strong” gimmick was old eleven years ago in FF9. I’ve taken to muting the PSP whenever she opens her mouth. And WTF is wrong with her, switching from a sensible uniform to a horrid frilly white dress with blue ribbons? Dress your age! I just got Mallarme a while ago, and her poor dress sense and fake flirting act (if she really liked me, she’d let me sleep in her bed!) rub me the wrong way, but if she continues to kick ass in battle like she’s doing then all will be forgiven.

That’s what happened with me and Cain, anyway. Mouth off all you like, just get the job done when it counts. Presently my favorite character is Rushdie because he’s fast and accurate on the battlefield and calm, collected and supportive off it. As a result I’m really worried he’s going to betray me at some point. It’s always the nicest guys who turn traitor, after all. And doesn’t his portrait make him look like he’s constantly smirking? Very suspicious. I’ll never forgive him if he turns Judas though.

Enough gaming for one day, on to other things.

Shepherd’s Crossing – General impressions

Since I enjoyed Shepherd’s Crossing 2 for the DS so much, I decided to make Shepherd’s Crossing the first game I played when I got my new PSP. Yes, I finally caved in and bought one. The release of Final Promise Story (Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari) made me sit down and take stock, and I realized there are over 75 games I’d like to play on the PSP. I’m too impatient to wait for a price drop when the NGP comes out, so I figured now was as good a time as ever to get one.

I needed something calming after my Tales of the Tempest experience, but I’m not sure Shepherd’s Crossing was really it. This is what happens when you play the sequel before the original and find the sequel has so many great improvements that the original sucks mightily in comparison. Don’t get me wrong. Shepherd’s Crossing isn’t all bad. It just has a number of frustrating elements that make it a tedious chore to play.

Firstly, I finally appreciate how much the clearly demarcated fields helped in Shepherd’s Crossing 2. It was still disorganized, but you could at least plan things: I’m going to fence my animals in here, I’m going to plant cabbages here, and tomatoes there and put a couple of trees there. This game is a complete mishmash, just a wide field with no clear markings at all. It’s so messy! There are many different types of fences, blocks and pickets you can use to pen your animals or fence your crops, but they’re SO hard to place correctly. And every time some animals show up to wreck your farm (which is often), your animals escape anyway and you have to round them up again.

Even worse there are so many things you can’t do in this game: you can’t chop down trees, you can’t explore your house, you can’t leave your farm except to go to the market, you can’t butcher your own animals, you can’t cook or process produce, you can’t get married or have kids, etc, etc. It’s far more limited than 2, especially since you can only hold 3 items at a time. And here I thought 5 items was bad.

You can hunt, though, which is a fun diversion from the main game. It’s a simple turn-based interface where you raise dogs and other attack animals, teach them some attacks and sic them on the local wildlife. Don’t worry, they deserve it. For your reward you get things like pelts and meat as well as points to trade in for items. It’s pretty fun, except they also give you these little statues that teach you stuff, and that you can’t get rid of even after learning the skills. They’re taking up space in my storehouse and it’s pissing me off! Oh wait, it looks like I can put them in the trash can. Just hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

Back to the flaws, though, the biggest one for me is the non-existence of money. There’s a reason mankind moved from the barter system to a cash-based society pretty quickly, and that’s because bartering sucks. But at least in real life bartering is a bit flexible. In this game you can only trade specific items for specific other items, and forget about trading that item you have plenty of for that other item you really really need right now, it’s not going to happen. I’ve been forced to drag out my game a little longer because I need to grow wheat to proceed. Only the trading process to get wheat seed is so long (raise rabbits, grow cabbage, feed rabbit cabbage, get rabbit fur) and the wheat is so reluctant to grow that it all died the previous year and I’m having to start the process all over again. RRRGGGGH.

Oh, and my PSP screwed me royally last night. In a stunning incidence of poor design, the battery indicator is placed right under your right palm when you’re playing. In other words, unless you move your hand away frequently (and why would you do that?) you won’t notice when your battery is about to run out. Even if you do move your hand, the low-battery indicator is a slow green flash, so you won’t get the message without staring at it for a few seconds. Next thing you know, fwip. There goes your game and any progress you’ve made in the last couple of hours. I reckon I must have lost about 12 days of progress last night. RRRRRGHHH again. Wait… I just turned my PSP on and it looks like I didn’t lose anything. Phew, and yippee!

Anyway, I’m only two years into the game right now. If things pick up, I’ll let y’all know.