New Year’s game resolutions

[Obviously an old post (3rd January 2010), now appearing here because of site crash and recovery. Happily enough I managed to play every single one of these games]

Finally finished Xenosaga Episode III, and with it the whole series. I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay in all three games, even the undoubtedly inferior II. I also liked most of the characters, except that stubborn, idiotic, moronic Shion. People talk about how fresh it is to have a female character as the lead, but Shion only makes girls look bad, being dumb, weak-willed, dishonest, helpless, only finding meaning in and being redeemed by the males in her life (Kevin, Allen, Jin).

But apart from her I enjoyed all the other characters, especially chaos. Throughout the series I was hoping he had a really unique backstory and interesting powers, but we find out everything about him in the last 30 minutes of the entire series and it’s not that interesting either, so…yeah. I learned a lot more about him from reading wikis than I ever did from the game itself. That’s the sure sign of bad writing and an overly-complicated plot.

Real life kept me from playing a lot of games last year, so I’m going to be much less ambitious in my gaming plans this year. There are only a few major games I want to finish, and then I’ll leave the rest to chance, or to whenever something I just *have* to play comes out. Here’s what I want to get done, ASAP:

1. Saga 2. I just killed Apollo, I think I have just one more boss to go.

2. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey – I’ve had it for a while but I haven’t even started it yet.

3. Harvest Moon: Twin Villages. When it comes out, I’m gonna be all over it!

4. Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2: Almost done with 1, I just went back to kill a few side-bosses and now they’re kicking my ass.

5. Angelique Special 2: Old game for PSX, but it’s been on my mind lately.

6. Dragon Quest 9: I’m a few levels into this. It’s interesting, but not especially gripping. But I’ll get to it sometime.

7. Atelier Lina: Lise and Annie were pretty much fail as far as I’m concerned, so I haven’t been in a hurry to get to this one. I wish they’d go back to the pure alchemy-centrism of the older games.

If I manage to finish just these by the end of the year, it’ll be enough for me. Yeah, I’m that busy.

Love Plus early info

love plusTouch your girlfriend on the screen! I don’t know how the Nintendo DS maintains its kiddy image in the face of an increasing line-up of naughty and edgy games. What caught by eye today is Love Plus by Konami (yes, that Konami). Konami is no stranger to romance games, being the creators of the Tokimeki Memorial series, but they’ve managed to keep things clean so far.

Let’s see, according to Famitsu, Love Plus is a “Communication Game” that takes place in real-time a la Animal Crossing. Your job as a player is basically to get a girl to fall in love with you. Once she does, you can touch her in various worksafe places to increase her affection for you. If you’ve played the Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side games for DS, there’s a similar feature in there. Unlike most romance games, Love Plus doesn’t stop once you confess to the girl but continues to show your deepening relationship. Depending on the choices and actions you make, the events you get to see differ.

Apart from the touchscreen features, the game is also voice-responsive, which is only useful if you speak Japanese. It’s not all one-sided molestation of nubile young girls, though. They can also make approaches towards you, termed “love motions.” Sounds kinda gross. Anyway, if you play your cards right, you’ll even be rewarded with a kiss scene!

love plus 2Guess I know what the next game I’m getting is! Love Plus from Konami comes out on 3rd September 2009.

Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side: 3rd Story

[Old post I made before site crash, which is why it’s out of order]

Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 3rd Story was announced last month, but I haven’t posted about it because there’s nothing to post. I mean, it doesn’t matter WHAT they announce, I’m going to play it anyway. I might complain afterward, but I’m sure as hell not going to miss out on it, so just tell me the release date and let me start saving up.

A few minor details have come up about which guys are going to be in the game, but unlike in Harvest Moon, I prefer not to know who’s available ahead of time. Even the shot of the main guy at the top is a little much for me, especially since he doesn’t look my type. So don’t expect me to keep tabs on what’s going on in the world of TMGS3 until it’s good and ready to come out.

The paucity of info leads me to believe we won’t be seeing it for months and months anyway, so I’m going to focus on other things. Like using the time to conquer the few remaining guys in TMGS1. I only ever got Madoka, Himuro and the headmaster, so I’d like to get a few others (except Sakuya ‘cos he’s eww) while I wait. Busy busy busy.

Persona 4 post-game impressions

persona48325Meh. Whatever. I liked Persona 3 better.

There, I said it. No one will deny the gameplay elements in Persona 4 are better. In particular it feels really good to be able to hit Square to move around the map. When exploring you can count on an easy supply of Goho-Ms to get out of the dungeon at any time. You can control your party directly. You can control your party directly. You can control your party DIRECTLY. Etc, etc. TBH I rather liked uncontrollable party members in Persona 3, but there’s no doubt that Persona 4‘s system is improved over P3 in every way imaginable.

When it comes to other elements though, I find it sadly lagging behind P3. Firstly the story feels really trivial. In theory a serial killer in a small town should make for a really tense and gripping game, but nobody really seems to care. When someone close to them dies they don’t even attend the funeral, and only one or two people are even upset by it. The townspeople go about their business just as usual and let their children run around town like nothing’s going on. For your party, which has appointed itself unofficial detectives, solving the mystery involves entering the TV once in a while, saving someone, then getting on with the rest of their lives, i.e. hanging out at the mall and eating steak. There’s never a sense of fear or urgency about the whole thing.

The characters are boring too. In fact I’m bored just writing this because it was such a dry game. I didn’t find the lame attempts at humor amusing at all. The cross-gender beauty pageant was an unfunny flop, Teddie was just annoying, Chie was a faint shadow with no real presence, Yosuke was meh in battle and meh outside, it just goes on and on. Not to mention if you don’t do their S. Links then their character development stops right after you face their shadows and is never referred to again. Haa.

The soundtrack was another let down. P3 was one of the few games where I rushed out and got the soundtrack right after finishing it. To be fully honest, P3′s soundtrack got on my nerves in the beginning, but in some sort of perverse Stockholm Syndrome way by the end of the game I loved it. P4… I remember the battle tune, goodness knows I heard it often enough. That’s it. Yah.

The graphics and colors in P4 somehow managed to be grayer and blander than P3′s, maybe to showcase the fact that it’s set in the boring countryside. The whole thing looks washed out, the blurry dungeon effects gave me a headache and writing this review is giving me another headache so I’m quitting.

I didn’t dislike P4, but I didn’t quite like it either. Plop down, do some S. Links (only good one was Death, IMO), do some more S. Links, fight and clear a dungeon in one day, do some more S. Links. Dating sim with fighting, I can live with that. And now that it’s over I can live without it.

Really? Really! DS

logoAre you a fan of visual novels? Or have you at least watched the anime Shuffle! ? Oh, and can you read Japanese? Then erotic game maker Navel has some great news for you! They’re bringing the 18+ computer visual novel Really? Really! to the Nintendo DS on 25th June 2009, two weeks from now.

This new game will almost certainly lose the naughty contents and probably end up rated Teen, but fans of the series can at least look forward to a touch pen interface and some extra content. And lots of cute girls, of course. While the computer game was fully-voiced, it remains to be seen whether DS version will have the same, due to space concerns.

really really dsThe premise behind Really? Really! DS = The game follows the characters of Shuffle!, where Kaede, one of the main characters (orange-haired girl on the left), has lost her memory and needs the player’s help to restore it. One of the features that made the game popular is a series of Ace Attorney parodies, or so the internet tells me. When a character gets a fact wrong, the player has the chance to shout “Objection!” and correct her, all leading to Kaede’s recovery. Stay tuned for my first impressions when the game comes out!