Angelique Trois Aizouhen – The beginning of the end for the series

Angelique trois aizouhen frontApproximately three years ago, I played Neo Angelique Special and was shocked not only by how terrible it was, but also by how great a departure it was from the early days of the series. It was called “Neo,” to be sure, but to me it seemed the game was Angelique in name only. If I had played Angelique Trois before it, I wouldn’t have been so surprised. All the factors that led to the series’ demise (in my opinion only; I know the “Neo” series is wildly successful) were foreshadowed way back in this game.

The first mistake was the removal of a rival. Having someone to compete against added a sense of urgency that isn’t present in this game.

The second was the removal of any sort of a challenge. There is a 115 day deadline to develop the continent, but even on Normal Mode, I got the required 6000 happiness with about 50 days to spare. Not having a rival means happiness only increases, never decreases. It means no one’s trying to stop you, not even La Ga, the so-called bad guy of the game.

If no one’s trying to hinder you or get ahead of you, then you can meet your targets pretty easily, and that means most of the features of the game are useless. For example, compatibility between yourself and guardians, and between guardians themselves, can be completely ignored. Zodiac signs and blood type don’t matter. The questions are the beginning of the game don’t matter. Guardian moods, which, along with the Heart Beat Meter, were newly introduced with this game, can also be ignored. In theory a happier guardian will work harder for you, but you don’t need their hard work so you can ignore them until they get better on their own. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Final Fantasy Type-0 – One hot mess

Final Fantasy_Type-0-Phantoma-2I’ve played 3 hours and 54 hours of Final Fantasy Type-0, clearing the prologue and the first story mission. After very little thought and very little agonizing, I’ve decided to shelve this for a while. It’s not because I don’t like it, though that’s true, or that I’m finding it difficult, though that’s also true. It’s simply that the controls are clashing with Dark Cloud 2‘s controls in my head, and something has to give.

I like to think I’ve come a long way in my attitude towards action RPGs, from “Ugh, get it out of here!” to “Hmm, I’ll give it a try.” Unfortunately I’m still not good at them yet. In DC2, X is Yes/Attack. In FF Type-0, X is No/Defend/Cure. I can’t play both at the same time, so I’m dropping one temporarily. DC2 wins because 1) I’ve been meaning to play it since September 2) I don’t know how long my PS2 will keep trucking along, 3) I actually like it, and 4) It’s much easier.

Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Devil Survivor 2 – Killed Polaris

Polaris_Second_Stage_Formation_(Both_Screens)I was going to let him go, but then I remembered I let Giygas go in EarthBound just a short while ago. It’s not like I win a prize for every last boss I kill, but as a gamer I have my gamer’s pride to uphold. I can’t overlook too much evil. It would be one thing if Polaris was really hard, but he’s not. The last SMT boss I gave up on was Mem Aleph, and he sure ain’t no Mem Aleph. Not even close! Plus if JRPGs have taught me anything, it’s that “mankind needs no gods!” so no matter how you look at it, I just couldn’t let him live.

And so it was that I went with Option 2 from the last post. Grinded MC up to level 64 and fused a Koumokuten with Deathbound (wanted Multi-Strike but couldn’t get it at short-notice) and Phys Repel. Gave it to Keita, who also had Phys Repel and Multi-Strike, plus a Behemoth for Devil Flash. All three forms of Polaris went out with a nary a whimper. I think MC got a hit or two in with Holy Dance, but Fumi and Io didn’t even get near the boss, it was over so quick.

The ending I got is has the survivors in Tokyo/Nagoya/Osaka being the only ones left in the world. Everything else is deep blue sea. Not only is this ruined world ending A-okay with me, but I’d actually love to play a world-rebuilding game set in an environment like that. A lot will depend on the facilities and personnel we have (fishing boats, harbors, carpenters, farmers), and exactly how many people have survived (10,000? 1 million?) but with JP’s and the SDF and the civilians all working together, we should be able to work things out somehow.

Even tricky issues like, ahem, repopulating the human world shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Obviously as the savior of the world MC gets first crack at every baby-making attempt. Strictly speaking Keita killed the last boss, but he doesn’t seem to care for girls so he probably won’t complain. Once we’ve guaranteed the succession of MC’s superior genes, we can work out some sort of hundred-year-long pairing system that makes everybody happy while ensuring that population doesn’t grow too fast. In the meantime we can work on land reclamation projects, floating cities, see if any undersea volcanoes have created new islands, and so on and so forth. It would make a great game!

*cough* This is the kind of game developers should be making through Kickstarter instead of generic-JRPG-redux #200.*cough* So anyway, that’s the kind of ending I imagined for Devil Survivor 2 (option 4) and it’s a very satisfactory one at that. I got a cleared save for my trouble after finishing the game, but I can’t imagine any of the other endings topping this one, so I’ll quit while I’m ahead. On to other games, for real this time!

Devil Survivor 2 – “Finished!”

devil_survivor_2_protagonistSay hello to my new method of finishing games: making it to the last boss and then watching the ending on Youtube. Except without the actual “watching the ending on Youtube” bit, because I can’t be bothered.

With a party between levels 59 and 62, I think I might be very slightly underlevelled against Polaris, but I was doing pretty well regardless. I made it to his third form, and then a lucky hit took out Io Nitta… along with all my Samarecarm-able demons! >_< Rrrgh. That was a very silly mistake I made.

This left me with a couple of options:
1. Try again. I might get lucky, or I might get wiped out again. Either way that’s another 10-20 minutes down the drain.
2. Grind my MC a bit in the free battles so I can fuse higher level demons. Put on Moneybags so I can afford to buy demons from the Auction and Compendium too. This will almost certainly lead to success, but it’s a 1-2 hour investment at the least.
3. Give up and watch the ending on Youtube. As a bonus I can watch both of Daichi’s endings in under 30 minutes, then if I figure it’s good enough to be worth doing myself, I can do options 1 or 2.
4. What I eventually chose: imagine the game ended how I wanted it to end. Kick Polaris’s ass, rebuild Japan, get on with our lives. This takes all of 30 seconds to do and is almost guaranteed to be better than the actual ending.

I should be quick to add, though, that I enjoyed Devil Survivor 2. I didn’t quit because I wasn’t having fun; I quit because fun time was over. What I was enjoying was the battles, and they were all but over. I can watch the ending without finishing the game, and I’m not invested in the story at all, so I decided to quit while I was ahead. If I change my mind, I still have the game and I can pick up right where I left off.

Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Devil Survivor 2 – Day 5. Act sexy for me.

40110512 hours, MC level 34, just about to revive Kama and Shiva so I can take down Alioth. I’ve played enough JRPGs that I’m not even surprised to hear there’s a monster that can only be turned on by having a 10th grader act sexy in front of it. It’s just business as usual in Atlus-land.

Things are going well, though. My MC is an unstoppable magic nuke with 22 MAG, 14 VIT, Drain, Ice Dance, Ice Boost, Media, Life Surge, Mana Surge and Battle Aura. I’m wondering if I should throw on Anti-Phys to make him even more un-KO’able, but maybe I’ll stick with this pattern for a while. All the other party member pale in comparison to Mighty MC, but I’m using Otome, Hinako and Keita for now. Try not to get in my way, losers!

As you can tell, I’m starting to get juuust a little bit cocky. This happens to me quite often, halfway through a game. The frustration of the early days is behind me, I’ve gotten the hang of the system, the story’s starting to take shape and everything seems to be going my way. Knowing SMT, they’re probably going to drop some powerful magic-reflecting boss on me and say “What now, punk?” but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Story-wise, I’m still not interested in what’s going on, but I have at least settled on a path to follow. I’m going to help Ronaldo Kuriki take down JP’s and Yamato. Why? Because Yamato is a white-haired prettyboy and as a true hero it is my destiny to beat him up. Barring any further major revelations – and I’m certain there are big ones coming – I don’t think Yamato is wrong about the whole hoarding food and supplies thing. Rescue and assistance after a disaster is all good and well, but not if the people actually doing the rescue and assistance are starving to death or dying for lack of medication. If 100,000 people have died already, what’s another 100,000 deaths if the problem can be stopped once and for all? Now, the real question is whether JP’s is actually helping any at all or whether they’re up to something fishy that will send things spiraling from bad to worse in a hurry. I remember clearly that messing with the Dragon Streams caused a lot of trouble in Tokyo Mono Hara Shi (another Atlus game), so it might be more of the same here.

Well, I’ll find out soon enough if I continue playing Devil Survivor 2. Meanwhile I haven’t been able to find the time to continue  Dark Cloud 2. I’m putting it on hold until November, when I should hopefully have a few days off. I’ll just have to resist the temptation to start anything else in the meantime.