Started Final Fantasy XIII – Exhausting to watch

Actually it’s not Final Fantasy XIII I wanted to play. What I really wanted was FF: Boyband Edition Final Fantasy XV. But since I didn’t quite want it enough to buy a PS3/XBOne for, I had to settle for the next best thing, FFXIII on PC. All in all it’s not such a bad trade-off. I had a rough beginning and almost quit a few times early on, but I think I’m in it for the long haul now, hence this brief progress report.

Status: 8 hours and some minutes in, somewhere in chapter 3? 4? Right after Lightning and Hope fight Odin and then finally, finally take a break. I was tired just watching them run and run and run and run and run almost non-stop from the beginning of the game. Run, fight, talk, run, fight, talk, run run fight fight, come on guys, stop to breathe already! Eat something! Drink something! Go to the bathroom! I know they’re video game characters, and I’m all for action-packed beginnings but 8 straight hours of non-stop running is too much even for me. That was one reason I almost dropped FFXIII early. I couldn’t play for more than 30 minutes at a go before mentally burning out.

The other reason was the horrible battle system, at least at the start. I hesitate to even call it a battle system, because it was just a matter of spamming the auto-attack option until the enemies died and you automatically got a 5-star rating. For doing what? Beats me. Luckily a few hours in someone realized “Whoa, this is terrible!” and added in some stuff about Paradigms (sort of like classes but not quite) and a pseudo-sphere grid thingy called a Crystarium. Paradigms I don’t care too much about, but I’m a huge sucker for upgrade systems where you use points to boost your skills and stats and stuff, so I’m happy there. These two additions haven’t quite made everything hunky-dory yet, but hopefully once I get some more skills and classes and paradigms under my belt – and maybe upgrade some of my weapons and accessories and stuff, things will pick up even further.

Final Fantasy games tend to be 50 hours long at a minimum, so 8 hours is barely scratching the surface. That’s why I’ll save any major complaints for the next report, whenever I get round to it. …Oh, but I can’t resist just a little one: I need more battles! And more boss battles!

And also I need the characters to get all their talking out of the way at the start of a dungeon and just let me get on with fighting. It’s annoying to fight a bit then get some pointless flashback, then a little more fighting, another cutscene or flashback, run a few more steps, cutscene, REALLY ruins the pace of the game. Do you mind? I’m trying to get stronger here! FFXIII is probably going to end up like Xenoblade/The Last Story/Arc Rise Fantasia/other similar games where I just suffer through the story to get to the battles. I’m already flirting with the idea of skipping all the cutscenes and reading the story on Wikipedia later.

Incidentally, this isn’t my first brush with Final Fantasy XIII. I watched someone play the first 15minutes several years ago and immediately concluded it wasn’t for me. And I think I was plenty right in that assessment and wouldn’t have enjoyed it if I had played it any earlier. FF is just something I have to be in the mood for, and now that I am in the mood, chances are high that I’ll see this through till the end. And if I like it, that opens the way for me to play XIII-2 and Lightning Returns. Win-win for everyone. So don’t mess up, Lightning & the gang!

Started both Rune Factory 4 and Summon Night 5

Rune Factory 4 – Started it only to discover that my 3DS keys are in even worse shape than I’d thought. There’s definitely something wrong with the L and Y buttons, and X and R are suspicious as well. It’s not something you notice much playing a point-and-click game like Spirit of Justice, but in an ARPG, keys that randomly stick and unstick themselves and don’t respond when you need them spell disaster. I bumbled my way into the first dungeon with the butterfly boss. Okay Frey, attack her. Attack, I said, don’t just stand there! Okay now dodge. DODGE!! Arrgh! Heal! Heal! Eat that herb! Why are you throwing it away?! Aaaahhh!!

Long story short, I got my bottom handed to me by the very first boss in the game. Oh, the shame! Me, losing to a level 2 monster. How possible? I wouldn’t even dare show my face around here again if the controls hadn’t been responsible (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). It’s such a shame because I really like everything about RF4 so far. The music, the sound effects, the character designs, the items, the whole game feels so… Rune Factoryish. Love the mood. And Doug looks like a fine romantic prospect so we’re good to go on that front as well. I’m a bit iffy on the Princess Points and Orders and Licenses, but it’s early days yet. If I could just fix these controls somehow.

Until I can work that out, Rune Factory 4 is shelved again for what, the 20th time this year? Maybe I’m just not meant to play it. I’m thinking of trying something turn-based or at least less free-roaming. Either that or just scrap the 3DS for good. Buying a new one is not on the cards at the moment, I’d much rather get a VITA/PS TV if it came to that.

Summon Night 5 – Since RF4 was not working out, off went the 3DS and on came the PSP. I didn’t die in the very first battle this time, I waited till the second ^^;; Serves me right for ignoring the instructions and just assuming it would be okay to let one or two characters die. Because of the way EXP works in Summon Night games, I usually play them pretty recklessly. I’ve been more cautious since then and things are working out okay. Chapter 2 right now.

And since it’s such early days, I will refrain from commenting too much, but I’m not really liking this game. It’s rubbing me the wrong way somehow. It doesn’t FEEL like Summon Night. It’s too pretty, too polished, too… fussy. It’s just… wrong. All wrong. The worst part is the moving character portraits when I’m used to them being static. And Arca is too ‘cutesy’ with her little rabbit teeth. I don’t like her. I don’t like Yeng-hua. I don’t like anybody. I was going to say their mannerisms remind me of the girls from Agarest Senki Mariage but I googled around and whaddya know, same developer. You know you’ve been playing too many games when…

But at least the gameplay is sound so far, nothing too complicated. I miss having to experiment with various objects in battle to get new summons, though. The mini-games haven’t unlocked yet, looking forward to those plus the fishing game. Dunno how to feel about skills. They broke Summon Night 4 in half like a cheap pencil and they add a layer of fussiness I don’t usually like in my SRPGS. You know what, let me just shut up and give the game some more time to develop. There will be plenty of time for complaining later.

La Corda d’Oro – Tsukimori Len GET!

And with that I can say goodbye to La Corda d’Oro (at least for now), not because it has done anything wrong but because I’m ready to see what La Corda d’Oro 2 has to offer. I’m mostly interested in the new songs, because I’m a little tired of MC’s current repertoire. You can only play La Campanella and Aria on a G String so many times before you start craving something new. Now that I’ve cleared all the routes for the main guys (except scruffy gross teacher and boring OB), the way is open for more new and exciting things to come my way.

My final target was Tsukimori Len but alas, I botched my playthrough and only barely got his date ending – the fairy gave me the “Love’s Miracle” score the day before the final contest, it was that close – so I never really got to delve into his objections to the magical violin the way I said I would last time. The problem is, I got greedy because I knew this would be my last run. So every single day after school I would go round talking to all the characters, not just Len, which wasted a lot of time. It paid off nicely when I got new CGs for Yunoki, Hihara and Shimizu, but this is what you call winning the battle and almost losing the war. (As an aside, it’s super nice of Koei to have the date ending for casual gamers and the true ending as a reward for the kind of people who actually buy guide books and follow FAQs.)

Apart from spending time with him, the other chief obstacle to getting Tsukimori’s true ending is the high BP requirement to trigger many of his events. To get a lot of BP you have to play your music for as large a group of people as possible. Ideally you would like Len himself to be included in that group for the affection boost, but he tends to shun crowds. There’ll be this nice big cluster of students over here and then Len will be over there in a corner somewhere… why? Or it’ll be a nice sunny Sunday and everyone’s in the park but he’s holed up by himself in the music room or the forest… WHY??? Actually if you talk to him he’ll tell you exactly why, but it doesn’t make it any easier to fulfill his parameter requirements and raise his affection at the same time.

Also there’s the simple truth that I got bored following the FAQ and decided to just let things happen naturally. Bad idea. I got to the final selection and realized Len’s affection stat was lower than a kick to the groin. What to do, what to do? Scramble, dash to the store, buy him lots of presents, and stalk him day in day out while half-heartedly learning a score for the contest. As a result of this mad rush I only got third place in the final selection, but it was enough to barely give me the overall winner position and a very cute, hesitant confession from Mr. Moon Forest himself. *^_^*

In the course of his confession he also states his final position on the magical violin: “The ends justify the means.” Basically it doesn’t matter if you used a trick violin or not or if you achieved in 4 weeks a level of proficiency it took him 10 years to reach, as long as you were able to make the listeners happy and convey the joy of music, that sort of thing, it’s all okay. Since I missed most of his event flags, this came across as a little sudden. Early on he’s as mad as a hatter about the violin, then radio silence for a while as we both studiously avoid the subject, then end of the game he’s cool with it? Uh, okay then. He’s a bigger man than I am, that’s for sure.

Final opinions of La Corda d’Oro are the same as my initial ones: I LOVE IT!!!!!! Nothing more to add to it, except you can stick a few “really”s between “I” and “love” if you’d like. Really looking forward to the added seasonal changes and school events and stuff in the expanded sequel. Between this game, the Harukanaru Toki series and the early Angelique games, Koei is probably the champion when it comes to offering meaty, satisfying otome games that I can’t stop myself from replaying even when they suck *cough*HTND 4*cough* Contrast that with this Crimson Noble gamething I started recently which was obviously created only to torture me. *mutter*No wonder Quinrose went out of business*mutter*

Ahem! Anyway, so that was that. Now to toss a coin about what game to start next, Summon Night 5 or Rune Factory 4. Heads, SN, tails RF. *flip* Tails. Rune Factory, here I come!

Sakura Taisen 3 – Erica sorta GET!

sakura-taisen-3-oogami-and-erica-jpgIt’s been almost 8 months since I started Sakura Taisen 3, but today I finally finished it. Shouri no po-zu, kime! Whee! If I had known how close to the end I was when I dropped it, I would have pushed on through and finished it long ago. …Either that or just Youtubed the ending. The later-middle parts of the game were rather sluggish because I had to fight the same 5 bosses I had beaten already all over again.

It’s probably my least favorite feature of the Sakura Taisen games, the way they waste so much time on an early set of bosses who turn out to be nearly inconsequential in the end. In ST3, it turns out the true boss needed us to kill off the earlier bosses so he could use their souls to revive an ancient god sealed underneath the Notre Dame. The ancient god is supposed to help him get revenge on the people of Paris because their ancient ancestors were mean to his ancient ancestors blah di blah. First we beat the crap out of him and his ancient god, then we preach to them about the power of love and lo and behold, they’re converted! Heck, I’d be converted too, if the alternative was another beating ^^;; But anyway, faced with our true love and the bonds of trust we have built up between us (stop me if you’ve heard those before) they decide to disappear/seal themselves away forever and we all live happily ever after, the end.

sakura-taisen-3-erica-and-oogamiOnly it’s not really the end, because first you have to sit through a lengthy epilogue featuring Ichiro “Ladykiller” Oogami and his chosen target. Sakura Taisen 3 has the edge over the previous two games in that it really tries to give you quality time with your lady once you pick her. You get at least two dates and multiple cutscenes/ sequences with just the two of you reaffirming your love for each other. It’s a lot more satisfying than what you get in ST1/2, though that might have a lot to do with me putting Oogami and Kanna together when he really doesn’t want to be with her.

Right: Waifu Left: Concubinu

Right: Waifu
Left: Concubinu

Well too bad, Oogami-san. Not only am I going to pair you with Kanna again when I play Sakura Taisen 4 but also I scuppered your budding romance with Erica by telling her you’ve got “someone special” waiting for you in Tokyo. What? It’s true, isn’t it? I’m going to make sure of it.

And so Erica, being the understanding French woman that she is, says she doesn’t mind being Oogami’s girlfriend just while he’s in Paris. However, when he returns to Tokyo at the end of the game she writes him a letter saying she lied and wants to be his real girlfriend, I’ll wait for you forever Oogami-san etc etc. Come on girl, don’t throw your life away. Just look at that goofy face and dumb haircut. You can do better than this guy. Find yourself a nice beau and settle down, okay? Good girl.

sakura-taisen-3-ericaInconvenient girly crushes aside, the Paris Troupe did manage to build a nice rapport with Mssr. Oogami by the end. It felt pretty natural for the most part, though Hanabi had so little presence in the game it was a little weird whenever she piped up about how wonderful Oogami was. Who are you again? They made a good team on the battlefield and off, and there was plenty of time between chapters to roam the town looking for new events. There’s plenty of time to read your options and pick the best answer, plus you’re usually rewarded for being as kind and polite as possible, which suits my style of play just fine. I was pretty happy with the visual novel portions of ST3.

sakura-taisen-last-chapterThe battles… should have been a tad tougher. Just a tad. It was okay for the game to be easy early on, but endgame bosses like Calamar, Saryu and the borderline NSFW Dernier should have put up more of a fight. Dernier in particular had three different forms but all of them were pushovers. I switched to the Fire formation which doesn’t even let my party heal and relied on Erica’s ougi to refill our HP as needed. Then it was just a matter of whittling down her HP with ougis – ougi, recharge ougi, ougi, recharge until boss dies.

But it’s not really a secret that the the Sakura Taisen games are visual novels first and SRPGs a distant second. Excellently-written visual novels with a surprisingly well-made SRPG aspect to be sure, but VNs nevertheless. So I promise this will be the last time I complain about the lack of challenge in an ST game. I had fun with the new cast of girls (and stopped Oogami from cheating on Kanna), I’m looking forward to getting back to Tokyo (and eventually merging the two casts), we managed to save Paris (after most of it had been destroyed, of course) and all’s well that ends well. Looking forward to the next installment!

Got the third best ending in Atelier Viorate

atelier-viorate-in-her-atelierJust a short little post for closure. Especially since I never finished Atelier Judie, it feels pretty good to get at least some closure in the Gramnad series of Atelier games. This so-called “third best ending” I got for Atelier Viorate has Vio and Bart’s parents moving back to Karotte Village after 5 years and Vio taking off with Eisel to go traveling around the world so she can learn more about alchemy. It’s a short ending scene, but it’s actually animated, which is how you know it’s supposed to be a really good ending. I should be thrilled to be so honored and favored by Gust.

And I am, really. Mostly. It’s hard for me these days to find games I enjoy enough to finish and I thoroughly enjoyed Atelier Viorate. A really good ending would have made it all the better so I was a teensy bit disappointed because in my game, at least, Viorate hardly spent any time at all with Eisel. I maxed out affection from Rodefried, Bart and Roland and got pretty far with other characters like Katharina and Milvis. I’m okay with Viorate going on a journey, but couldn’t it be with someone she actually likes? It’s very sudden and unnatural because this same Viorate adamantly refused to leave Karotte Village at the start of the game, now she just ups and skips town with a virtual stranger? What’s gotten into her? Weird.

At least give me an ending with this guy.

At least give me an ending with this guy.

Also, not related to the quality of the ending but a major peeve nonetheless: because I didn’t get the PSP-only “Sufia ending”, I don’t get to play New Game+ or Unlimited Mode. A proper New Game+ would have let me carry over all my money plus useful synthesized items like my flying boards and bombs so I could hit the ground running. That would have given me the incentive to play for the two better endings, both of which require me to beat some really tough bosses. As it is, the thought of starting over from scratch puts a huge damper on any desire I might have had to replay this game, so I’ll call it a day here.

Final thoughts: Great game, lots of areas to explore, very likeable characters, not too hard for the most part but with some very tough areas for those who want real challenge, not quite as many alchemy recipes as I would have liked but playing with attributes can be interesting, etc etc. I want to say “It scratched my alchemy itch” but that would be a lie – nothing scratches my alchemy itch. I wanna make more stuff now!! But I’m not going to get that satisfaction from Viorate any more, so it’s time to move on.

viorate-eisel-endingWhat I’m playing now: Finally picked up Sakura Taisen 3 where I left off. I picked Erica to be my No. 1 girl (but my heart belongs to you, Kanna!) and headed out to what claims to be the final battle but almost certainly isn’t because I have at least 2 more bosses and one superweapon to defeat. I’ll see what I can do this weekend towards clearing this game once and for all.

I also started Crimson Empire ~Circumstances to Serve a Noble~, partly because I’m curious about the board game & bribery gameplay and partly because I don’t want to blast through all my RPGs and be left with nothing but otome games on my backlog. Contrary to popular belief I do actually like otome games, but in small, occasional doses, like a fattening snack or a decadent dessert. I haven’t played a really good one since…Hanayaka nari Waga Ichizoku last year? Not counting my replay of La Corda d’oro. It’s been too long. Here’s hoping Crimson Empire will be good.

Btw, you might have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the 3DS in a while. There’s, uh, a reason for that but, umm… it’s not a very happy story, so I’ll spare you. I’ll play those games eventually but it’ll happen when it happens, more or less. Until then I still have lots of games in my backlog clamoring for my attention so I’d better get to work.