Children of Nada

I picked up Children of Mana for the DS recently.



And I wish I hadn't. I didn't think that Square-Enix could completely screw up a good premise for such a good franchise, but hey, they did create FFX-2 and Drakengard.
The plot seems structurally sound, with a damsel in distress and underlying lore -- though it is not as involved as Seiken Densetsu 3. The atrocious part, however, is in the gameplay factor. The randomly created dungeons with waves of mindless AI enemies, and a character who starts out and stays fairly weak and ineffectual throughout the game, since enemies scale with your character to make him/her/it feel even more inadequate. You only get one Elemental Spirit, which means only a few different spells, and since only 2 of them can do anything remotely resembling healing, you're usually stuck relying on the light or lunar spirit. It's definitely a dungeon crawler, but I played many with much better, more interesting dungeons and exceptionally more interesting fights. Progression through areas of a dungeon probably seemed like a good idea in theory, but finding the Gleamdrop (the key to go to the next part of the dungeon) quickly becomes a tedious chore.
The one saving grace of this might be the mission system, which at least rewards you for returning to previously completed dungeons and trudging through the same puzzles that exist in every other map of every other game. The other moderately refreshing thing is the use of different weapon types (sword, flail, bow, and hammer). However, the upgrades to these come far more frequently than your wallet can usually buy, which forces you to inevitably do more town missions.
One of the more interesting effects is the uses of the spirits; releasing the elemental spirit with you will have it float nearby. If you leave it alone, it will unleash a damaging spell, with areas of effect being different for each one. The casting time is so long and the effect fairly weak, however, and more often than not it is just far more efficient to rely on your own weapon. If you touch it, you activate another spell/effect, usually healing or enchanting your weapon with the spirit's element. The spirits themselves can be raised to higher levels and attain stronger magic with the equipping of Gems, which players find in dungeons or buy from town. Again, however, your wallet and needs will limit what gems you can or should use, and many good ones seem to come with detrimental effects as well.
All in all, the game turned out to be a really boring hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. It's a poor excuse for a Mana game, especially when compared to the original Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, and Legend of Mana. I would really have much rather seen a translated port of SD3 than this atrocity.

Extending the Neverending

Hopefully this will count for the assignment. Even if it doesn't, I've been wanting to put in my two cents on this one anyway.

I've been playing Final Fantasy XI off and on for a long time, usually moving over to World of Warcraft when I get tired of the utter lack of independence in FFXI; you need at least five other people to do the most mundane of tasks, barring tradeskills, unless you're a masochist who has completely leveled up Ninja (biggest money sink in the whole game, in my opinion).

So I was a little skeptical when I picked up the latest expansion -- Final Fantasy: Wings of the Goddess is the third expansion (fourth for Japanese players) for this love-it-or-hate-it MMO. Wings of the Goddess (WotG for future reference) gives the players the opportunity to travel into the past and experience the Crystal War in which the Beastmen hordes banded together under the Shadow Lord to crush the fledgling nations of Windurst and Bastok, as well as the kingdom of San d'Oria.
The way that players return to the past is through strange Cavernous Maws stationed around the world in various locations (only in original zones). People who played Final Fantasy 9 might recognize the resemblance between these maws and a particularly fun summon beast, though that isn't the first time they've used the gaping demon mouth things.
WotG introduced a few new aspects to the game, including a new battle system called Campaign and the accompanying medal system that gives players benefits as they aid the forces of Altana (the armies of Windurst, Bastok, and San d'Oria). Campaign battles take place in the outdoor maps all around the world of the Past, and can occur at any time. It is comprised of waves of monsters attacking the Fortification of the zone, and the army of non-player characters (NPCs) with the aid of players fighting them off. To participate, you talk to a Campaign Arbiter at the fortification, who gives you a special buff that will let you accrue Allied Notes ("currency" for purchasing equipment or items from the armies) as well as experience points, which are given at the end of the campaign battle. This allows a slow, but reliable way to gain experience points that does not require a party of five other people, and anyone can participate at any level assuming you can get to the past. However, the amount of experience and Allied Notes is based on your performance during the battle -- if you're just standing around or not able to contribute a lot, your campaign assessment will suffer.
Aside from and intertwining with the story of the Crystal War, Wings of the Goddess introduces a new storyline to explain the temporal rifts (the aforementioned Cavernous Maws) and brings in a few familiar names from the Final Fantasy series with fairly drastic makeovers. The expansion also introduced two new playable classes, Dancer and Scholar -- both of which, at first, seemed greatly out of place in the clear-cut job distinctions of FFXI (support, tank, mage, healer). Previous experiments in mixing and matching party dynamics are still lacking (Summoner, Puppetmaster), yet it seems they hit the mark with these. Dancer, despite the initial dismay at prancing around on the screen, is probably the most entertaining class I've ever played in the game. It is the only job capable of healing without the use of magic, and is good blend of support and damage -- it can even tank in smaller parties, though lacks the lasting strength and holding power of Paladins or Ninjas. Scholar, on the other hand, feels like a rehash of old magic that we've gotten used to over the years with a twist of being able to augment mana cost, cast times, cast delays, and possessing the capability to heal very effectively while still having only a slightly lower magic damage potential than Black Mages. The fact that both of these jobs make incredible subjobs as well as main jobs (though Scholar is lacking in defensive capability) is a testament to the careful attention the development crew has taken.

To be honest, though, I wish I had not bought the expansion before the first version update for it. It may seem like there's a lot to do at first, but it quickly runs dry as the story halts at the third mission. Campaign and the new jobs are greatly entertaining, but for someone who likes continuing storylines like I do, not being able to progress is frustrating. All in all though, it's shaping up to be a good expansion, with a few much needed additions to the game play. New jobs always offer a fresh start, and it's exciting to experiment with them and explore the expanded world. It just needed more content on launch. On this subject I can't help but compare it to the only World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade -- there was a VAST amount of new subject matter to explore, levels to gain, skills to experiment with, and it did what an expansion should do: completely revolutionize the game and make it feel fresh. It even continued the warcraft lore, which was already rich from the RTS games. FFXI expansions, however, are encapsulated with their own storylines, which are admittedly interesting, but the lack of connections between them make the whole game seem fractured into segments rather than a continuous journey.

Running out of steam for this post, but I'll provide updates as they come along in my next few posts.

Treble - 75 Bard, 75 Black Mage - Caitsith Server

Blogging for a n00b

Having to create a blog for a class is certainly something new to me. Usually I have trouble keeping up with these things, but if a grade is hinged on it, might as well.
For now, this will simply be the blog for ruminations on my Game Design class, MART 590E at the University of South Carolina. Part of the assignment for the class is a weekly synopsis of a new game we've taken the opportunity to play. I haven't decided what game will be the first target.

As for the title of my blog, I know it might sound a bit campy. I've been reading too many fantasy novels and playing too much Zelda: Twilight Princess lately.