Kanuchi: Futatsu no Tsubasa – One step forward, five steps back

Shortly after my last post about Idea Factory’s fantasy blacksmithing otome game, the writers hit the reset button and reset most of my progress back to square one. To recap the story a bit, the two nations of Takamahara and Yasuna have been at war for approximately 2017 years. Aki, an ordinary Taka-whatsit village girl, moves to the city to work as a blacksmith so she can buy medicine for her sick grandpa (he’s all better now, thanks for caring). Somehow or the other, she gets possessed by Kayana, the legendary Taka warrior queen from 2017 years ago, but they manage to make things work out.

While Kanuchi does have a romantic component and about 12 or so potential partners to woo, romance isn’t really a major aspect of the game. It has more in common with the older Atelier games, where you can get endings with particular characters, but that’s hardly the main character’s goal in life. But since the Takahamara guys were all more or less decent, I had Aki/Kayana play nice with them in the hopes of getting some good lovin’. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Happy New Year! And resolutions for 2014

new-year-fireworks-wallpapers-hd-wallpapersIt’s a little late, but Happy New Year!

Now, straight to business. What am I playing this year? Last year’s resolutions were a bit of a disaster. I packed the list with games I’d “always wanted to try,” little realizing that the real reason I’d never actually tried the games I’d “always wanted to try” is because somewhere deep inside, I didn’t really want to try them. Although I only ended up playing three of those last year, with the exception of Monster Hunter*, I will probably play all those games one day. However I see no reason to deceive myself or anyone else by listing any more “always meant to try” games this year.

After all, I had much greater success with my half-year resolutions, when I put down stuff I was eager to, or at least fairly interested in playing. That’s what I’m going to do this time. Taking a leaf from that book, I will also limit the list to 6 items, for now.

Enough with the preliminaries. Here’s what I’m looking to play.

Conception_~Ore_no_Kodomo_wo_Undekure!~1. Conception: Ore no Kodomo wo Unde Kure (PSP) – A dungeon-crawler with a relationship aspect, if I recall correctly. I’ve steered clear of spoilers as much as possible, but it’s a game I’ve been wanting to play for a long, long time. Why I’ve held off so long, I don’t know, but I’m going to rectify that as soon as I can.

2. Tokimeki Memorial 2 (PSX) – I’m still waiting for the announcement of either TM5 or TMGS4. In the meantime, I’m going to pass the time by finishing off the only game in the series I haven’t played. Something tells me I’ve actually tried this game before, but I don’t remember when or why I didn’t get anywhere (bad sign?) so it’s time to do a proper job of it.

3. Atelier Lilie (PS2) – The only non-PS3 Atelier I haven’t played. Actually, I’ve tried it before. And uhh, I didn’t get very far. Aaand I didn’t like it very much. Buuut it’s very likely I was playing it wrong, trying to blaze through a game where you’re meant to slow down and think before you move, paying careful attention to what NPCs tell you. The same thing happened to me with Atelier Lina, where I tried a little bit then went on a rampage when it didn’t immediately ‘click.’ I ended up loving that game, so it’s likely I’ll do much better with Lilie too.

4. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) – Ore ga Omae wo Mamoru opened my eyes to the world of Metroidvania games, which I’d like to explore a little further. I was told by that a trusted source that, “Even you can play this game,” so I will proceed to do just that. By the way, this trusted source was the same one who recommended TWEWY and Earthbound, and we all know how those turned out. Third time’s the charm? We’ll see.

Tides_of_Destiny5. Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny (Wii) – I started it right after Rune Factory: Frontier, decided it was a little too soon and benched it for a while. The colors look messy and garish on my ancient 21-inch TV too. I don’t quite know what to do about it, but maybe 2014 will be the year I finally upgrade my TV? <_< with whose money? Still, I know I’ll have an RF/HM craving before too long, and this will be there to meet that need.

6. Dragon Shadow Spell (PS2) – Assuming the PS2 doesn’t flatline on me before I can get to it, that is. A colorful and dramatic SRPG from the sadly-missed Flight Plan. I started this several years ago. The gameplay was nice, but the story seemed really complicated, and I wasn’t in the mood for that. But if my PS2 is on its last legs, then I definitely want to play this before it goes.

There. I’ll start off with these for now. As usual, all this assumes I’ll have the time and strength and the same interest in games all the way through the year. It’s funny, I was only half-serious last year when I said I was looking to quit gaming. But once I got the thought out there, suddenly it started sounding more and more feasible, even desirable. On the other hand, that didn’t stop me from playing at least 44 (o____o I must have counted wrong) different games last year, so I wouldn’t take myself too seriously just yet.

The list doesn’t include titles I’ve already started like Tales of Legendia or Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. It also doesn’t include those games I’d agreed to give a final chance to, like Disgaea, Avalon Code and the first Shiren the Wanderer game, so I’ve already got more than enough to keep me busy for the next 6 months at least. If I’ve made good progress by that point, I’ll add some more games halfway through the year. Have a good one!

* Re: Monster Hunter: Nothing against it. I just spent the holidays watching my brother play Monster Hunter: Tri on the Wii. It’s a good “spectator game,” if there’s such a term, but the more I saw of it, the less I could see myself playing it. It’s too stressful! And they’re so stingy with the rewards! I have better things to do than spend a whole day cutting off Rathian tails looking for a Plate.

Kanuchi: Futatsu no Tsubasa – An introduction

Kanuchi: Futatsu no Tsubasa (Kanuchi: Two Wings) is a fantasy blacksmithing otome game developed by Vingt-et-un Systems and published by Idea Factory under their Otomate label. The ‘kanuchi’ part of the title is an in-game title for the king’s exclusive blacksmith. The ‘two wings’, I suppose, refer to the fact that our heroine Aki has been possessed by the ghost of Kayana, a queen from 2017 years ago, and two are sharing the same body until further notice. It’s very weird as far as otome games go, but it’s also a tremendous amount of fun.

In a later post, I’ll talk more about the ever-changing story and maybe introduce the characters. Today, though, I want to introduce the gameplay. After all, otome games with actual gameplay are few and far between, much less those with alchemy/smithing action.

First the story: Aki’s grandfather, a blacksmith, is sick. She needs to earn money to buy him medicine. The city guildmaster rents her a blacksmith’s forge and a shop where she can live and work. Sadly, Aki doesn’t know a thing about smithing. Happily enough, she soon gets possessed by an ancient queen who does know about it.

Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Picross DS

Picross_DSMerry Christmas! And Happy New Year in advance!

This holiday I have a big chunk of time free that I should be using to try something long and complicated. Instead I’m doing Picross puzzles instead. After the runaway success I had with Picross 3D earlier this year and with Color Cross wow has it really been that long ago, I’ve been meaning to revisit the original, and the time just happened to be right. I wanted to see how far I could get, because I quit really early the first time I tried it. The 5×5 puzzles were easy, the 10×10 were barely doable, but from 15×15 onwards, I was just lost.

Having built up experience playing the other games, this time round was slightly different. Probably the most significant difference was that I threw away my foolish pride and used the Hints roulette all the way through. I also took my time, thought a lot about the puzzles and didn’t throw up my hands at the first sign of trouble, so I made it pretty far.

Compared to the other two though, Picross DS isn’t that much fun. Once you get even a little way into the Normal Mode puzzles, the clues all become like “1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1” and stuff like that. Just horrible. The game tells you that “Every puzzle can be solved using logic without resorting to guesswork” but of course they’re going to say that, it’s their game. Also navigating the larger, zoomed-in puzzles is a clumsy affair, so the ease of movement 3D spoiled me with is completely gone.

The only real advantage Picross has over the other games is that the finished puzzles actually look like what they’re supposed to look like. Even then it’s not 100%, especially for the Level 4+ puzzles. Also it scratches my Picross/Picross-related itch. I’m still not a puzzle/logic game fan, but I do crave simpler, more mindless experiences sometimes. So I haven’t quit Picross yet, though I’ve abandoned many of the more annoying puzzles, and I’ll probably be playing it for a long time to come.

Having said that, I actually didn’t set out to play Picross on my DS. I was going to play something “proper,” clearing up the last few DS games I hadn’t tried yet. However I tried Solatorobo and Soma Bringer in quick succession and neither game really ‘clicked’ with me, so I gave up in despair and Picross was the result. With Soma Bringer, I think I might try again this weekend, but the battle system in Solatorobo just put me off. I am reliably informed that I can win every battle just by mashing A, but I fail to see the fun in that. Not to mention the platforming elements are just tedious so, yeah it’s dropped. Now that I come to think of it, I haven’t played a romance/otome game in a while, so maybe I should do one of those instead. Hmm, decisions, decisions. Well, I’ll figure something out.

Almost finished a second playthrough of Final Fantasy Type-0 (slight spoilers)

ff-type-zeroBut then I got to the final dungeon and was like, no. Just no. I can’t do this again, especially since there’s no better ending in store for me since I didn’t fulfill all the obscure requirements necessary to get a different end.

It was a good second run, though. Square-Enix did a New Game+ right and added several new missions as an alternative to the old ones I did on the first playthrough. These are also scaled up level-wise so they still pose a proper challenge. This might piss off those people who prefer everything to be available on a single run, though.

Thanks to my higher level, I was also able to tackle most of the Combat Exercises in chapters 3-6, though I got tired and dropped out after that. This also gave me access to a few more dungeons and quests, including Silent Yard, where I killed an Iron Giant and got a Grow Egg (x2 exp) as a reward. As a bonus, this allowed me to appreciate just how stingy this game is with the EXP. Even with double experience, it still took many, many battles for my characters to level up even once. What a gyp!

The second playthrough of Final Fantasy Type-0 was fun and all, but it didn’t really yield much by way of answers. The few answers I got came from the in-game glossary, meaning I could have just read the glossary instead of bothering to replay the game. What is Mother (Alicia)? She’s a ‘diva’, an outsider observing the world and the choices it makes. There are two such observers, Mother and a mysterious man in a mask. It is this man who turns Cid into an Arbiter of the world against his will, so now we know how that came about. I also learned what Cid’s problem was, though not exactly what he was trying to achieve, and why Qator chose to save Aria’s life. That’s what I learned, but the game also added even more questions in the form of Tiz and Rin, the latter of whom addresses Machina as “the other me.” Say what? I’m not going to pursue this nonsense any more. Enough is enough.

Well, at least I got the Type-0 bug out of my system. I might be a bigger ARPG fan than I’d thought. Left to my own devices I’d be playing Tales of Legendia right now, but my PS2 is acting up again. The power button is all fussy. It only turns on when it feels like coming on, which is less and less often these days. So the PS2 is out, and my PSP needs a break, which leaves the Wii, the DS or the PC as my next gaming platform. I’ll pick something and start in a day or two, once Christmas is over.