Words cannot express my disgust.

I loved Capcom. I loved it to death, till they destroyed so many beautiful and great series in a few fell swoops. Breath of Fire,
Bastardization of good series seems to be a reoccuring theme in my blog, and Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is no exception.

I love the Breath of Fire series to death. 1-4 are probably all very high on my "Favorite Games of All Time" list. This is why Dragon Quarter cuts so deep into my nerve that I can hardly even think of properly express my sense of betrayal by Capcom.

One of the great things about Breath of Fire was it's expansive world, full of places to explore and people to meet. Capcom said fuck that, sticks you in an underground tower with two really bastardized iterations of Nina and Ryu (the Breath of Fire version of Zelda and Link). The whole task is to reach the surface from this underground hellhole, which has a very post-apocalyptic type feel which is VERY much non-canon for the series. I can understand trying to make something different, but turning the whole series on its ear is just retarded.
The only redeeming quality I can find in this game is the ability to set traps and run in real time during combat -- the problem with this is that your actions and movement are limited by your activity; walking and doing something both take up your "activity" gauge, and it's irritating to end up right next to an enemy and not be able to do anything. Your party is boring, the characters are difficult to empathize with, and the most interesting character is your rival, Bosch.
Perhaps the most infuriating thing is that in some cases, you HAVE to die in order to become strong enough to progress. You can die and keep all the experience you gained between save points, and they abuse this system to a bloody pulp by making you literally suicide until you're strong enough to kill bosses. Your most powerful abilities are limited by a countdown that still goes up, EVEN IF YOU DON'T USE THE ABILITIES. If the countdown reaches zero (sped up by using the dragon abilities), it's an instant gameover, which fucks over the save system and the EXP system that only appeals to masochists.
I honestly couldn't play more than a few hours of this. I was too infuriated to continue.

Final Fatality X-2

For a series with the word "final" in it, these games don't seem to end anywhere. Even more surprising is when Square-Enix start making actual sequels and spin-offs of their own "final" games.
I've had Final Fantasy X-2 for a while, but I hadn't played it much till now. Now, I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy, and I loved the prequel to this game to death; this was the reason that I felt both elation and irritation at Square-Enix for FFX-2.

Final Fantasy X had such a finality to it's ending that I saw no possible way that they could continue the storyline. The story seems a bit frayed, in that to begin, you're searching for evidence of something that no longer exists -- the whole reason that Yuna, the female protagonist from the last game, became a Sphere Hunter was to find possible clues to another character's whereabouts. In the process, she gets involved with a totally new storyline not altogether involved with Final Fantasy X, which is kind of nice but at the same time it feels like a bastardization of something that was great.
The fact that a reserved girl like Yuna is running around in skimpy short-shorts even at the very beginning of the game heralds another issue I have with this game. It appears to be a blatant attempt to milk one of Square-Enix's most popular Playstation 2 and the reach to the fanboy base who likes skimpy outfits. They try to reach to the girls with a "girl power" type message, the three female heroines forming "YRP" (Yuna-Rikku-Paine) and the Gullwing crew. Think of the anime version of Charlie's Angels, minus Bosley. Yep. This doesn't belong in a Final Fantasy game. Sorry.
This part I'm kind of on the fence about. The Dressphere system, which lets you switch between jobs (Warrior, Gunner, White Mage, etc) on the fly, is a great idea, and very flashy. However, it's just like playing dress-up with your characters. It has a shamefully effeminate feel that, while it doesn't bother me, probably killed a lot of male interest in the game -- or would have, if the outfits weren't so skimpy. It's kind of interesting to be able to switch jobs even during combat though, to be fair, and the Garment Grids (cards that you set Dresspheres into) give useful buffs and abilities. It's a fresh idea, but considering FFX didn't even have defined "jobs" (any character could do anything you wanted them too, if you had the proper items for the Sphere Grid system), it doesn't seem to fit well in the scope of the series. Hell, no Final Fantasy game since 5 had a defined job system except for Tactics, XI, and the GBA games.
The other problem I have with this is the Story % completion -- for each event in the game, you get a certain amount of story percentage completed, even for some of the most mundane stuff like talking to someone. If you miss any of these before progressing to the next chapter or sometimes even just to the next area, you're screwed out of that story %. You can't even get 100% in one play through, but they at least had the decency to put in a New Game+, which lets you start over with your levels, money, items, story %, and garment grids intact.

It's not that bad of a game if you treat it as it's own entity, instead of comparing it to other Final Fantasy titles. It's challenging, but doesn't feel like you have to grind for experience points like you would have in most RPGs. It was kind of nice to revisit old areas in FFX and see what's changed, although some of the plot points in the post-FFX era in the world seem rather off in context with how characters were in the previous game. Meeting new characters while finding old ones has a strange nostalgic feel, and at some points, it feels like the whole game is meant to celebrate one of the most interesting worlds Square-Enix has made in their games.
FFX-2 just feels like a giant side-quest to FFX, an extended epilogue milking the spent udders of a good game. It's not bad, but it just doesn't live up to it's prequel storywise. It tries to be too gimmicky with the girl power and skimpy outfits.

Turnabout Blog

To get the bad taste of Lufia: The Ruins of Lore out of my blog, I'll review one of my favorite games this time.

When I first heard of a game revolving around litigation, I was understandably skeptical. How could a game involving one of the most hated and suicide-inducing careers in the world be interesting, albeit fun? Capcom answered that question with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. The game starts out with a bang (you'll be empathizing with characters from case 2 onwards, at least) and keeps the ball rolling through all 5 cases.
The qualities that I like in this game include interesting stories involving each case, some interwoven between each other and all containing more plot twists and guesstimation than you can shake an index finger at. You play as Phoenix Wright, a rookie defense attorney under the tutelage of Mia Fey, a well-known and established attorney. All of your cases appear to be murder trials, and the way The system revolves around two forms of play: the Investigation, where you gather clues for a case before taking them to the Trial, where you lock intellectual horns with the prosecuting prodigy, Miles Edgeworth. While I'm sure none of the stuff you can do in this game is really within the bounds of legality for a defense attorney, you'll feel more intelligent as you play and solve harder riddles.
The difficulty curve staggers at some points, within and through cases. It's a refreshing intellectual challenge, and one that the characters and story make you want to meet. Capcom's translation team did an excellent job with localizing a lot of the cultural differences, which are important in a text based point-and-click like Phoenix Wright.
In reality, only 4 of the cases are from the actual game; since Phoenix Wright was originally a Gameboy Advance game in Japan, they upped the ante on the US version and added a preview for the next installment of the series in the form of Case 5. While this might confuse players, with the release of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney recently, it all comes together.
I enjoy this series very much, but then again, I'm a sucker for a good, convoluted story. It only lasts for 3 games before handing the reigns to Apollo Justice, but it's a wild ride that gets all loose ends tied up in a neat little bow in the end.
Give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.

Atlus shrugged

Oh my, that title makes me feel witty.

In any case, the subject of this blog will be one of the worst bastardizations of one of my favorite series ever -- Lufia: The Ruins of Lore.
Lufia was once a proud and beautiful series on the consoles, but this foray into handheld tanked so hard that Maxim felt it from the prequel to the first game. This was published by Atlus, the same people that gave us such gems as Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Shin Megami Tensei, Tactics Ogre, and Trauma Center. Having received this series from Natsume, however, seems to have given them license to kill [an incredible series].
The game suffers from graphic degradation where it was very much unnecessary. The series, made popular on the Super Nintendo with Lufia: The Fortress of Doom and Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals were not necessarily intense in the graphics area, but at least they didn't look like bizarre rip-offs of Harvest Moon characters (that's not a knock at Harvest Moon, I actually like that series a lot). The music and graphics feel like they were put through a meat grinder and fed to sick cows before reaching the consumer.
The other beef I have with this game is the blatant ripping off of both Pokemon and Monster Rancher in a game where it should have been unnecessary. Buying special Discs (cave, grass, etc) lets you capture monsters you have weakened and add them to your party to aid you in combat. While Lufia II had a pet system as well, it was at least somewhat original; there were only six assisting monsters, one of each element, and were discovered like treasures throughout the world. You raised them by feeding them items and equipment of various types, and they leveled up with you. What was so bad about that that Atlus decided to change it?
The story is boring as well. While previous games in the series kept me riveted for hours, I was able to put this down without any qualms about finishing it after about 4 hours into playing. The characters are bland and uninteresting, and I found myself unable to empathize with any of them.
I was very disappointed in a company that I have so much respect for. I wasn't expecting a graphical powerhouse on the GBA, but I wasn't expecting one of my favorite series to be put through the shitblender either.

A Gilded Glory

That title sucked.
But this game didn't. In a market where I thought RPGs were getting run into the ground with similar story elements and hackneyed mechanics, I found this beauty on the GBA.
Golden Sun is a unique game in its approach, handling, story -- well, anything, although the equipment system could be likened to other RPGs (I'll knife anyone who says the Djinn system is anything like Materia, though).
The land of Weyard once experienced a golden age of Alchemy -- that is, the power of the elements -- in which civilizations grew to incredible heights of achievement (amazing, an RPG that actually gives reasons for the existence of its ruins). However, the power of Alchemy lead to world conflict that eventually caused the desire to seal the power away to avoid its corruption. The powers of Alchemy (and in subsequent explanations, Psynergy) are divided into four elements represented through the game by Earth [Venus], Fire [Mars], Wind [Jupiter], and Water [Mercury]. I'm not quite sure why the chose those particular names for each element, but it seems to work for poetic effect. The power of Alchemy is harnessed by "adepts" of the given element, in the form of Psynergy -- essentially, magic in this game. The keys to Alchemy are 4 jewels each representing an aforementioned element, locking away the wellsprings of Alchemic power in the four elemental Lighthouses that the ancient cultures constructed throughout the world to house the power.
These jewels, the Elemental Stars (Mars Star, Jupiter Star, etc) are where our heroes enter the game. The jewels were hidden in Mt. Aleph, a mountain shrine that sits atop the town of Vale, which has been charged with protecting the jewels from those that would seek to unlock Alchemy again. Two of the main characters, Isaac and Garet, and a more minor story character in Jenna, hail from the village of Vale, along with the scholar Kraden. In the prologue, the village is attacked by two of the Mars tribe named Saturos and Menardi, in order to steal the elemental stars; however they failed to solve the puzzles of Mt. Aleph and were forced to flee. At the beginning of the game proper, they have returned with two accomplices -- one of which happens to be a former resident of Vale and Jenna's brother. Thus the plot thickens as Saturos and Menardi force you to hand over 3 of the 4 elemental stars before escaping the now pissed off Mt. Aleph with Jenna and Kraden as hostages to ensure you bring the fourth star to them.
The basic premise of the game is to travel to the lighthouses and stop them from being lit with the stars (thus freeing Alchemy once more, considered to be catastrophic now), and along the way you run into various problems in each town. They aren't quite as distracting as side quests and exposition usually are, and often give more background into the world. Along the way you meet your other party members, a Jupiter adept named Ivan and a Mercury adept named Mia, giving you a nice, well-rounded group.
The "gimmicks" of this game include the Psynergy you use to do damage in battle, heal, and solve puzzles with. The puzzle-solving aspect is the most interesting -- as you progress, you gain different psynergies that can open up other paths. For example, you initially start with "Move", which is just as it sounds. It extends a psycho-kinetic force that moves an object one space at a time. Further down the road you get other spells such as Force to knock down broken things or Frost to freeze puddles of water into pillars you can then hop on top of or push to switches. It's probably not -completely- innovative, but it feels new and fresh and adds a good spin on a genre that, admittedly, was feeling stale at the time. The other gimmick is the Djinn system. You have to collect little spirits of each element (the Djinn themselves), sometimes having to solve puzzles or battle them before they will join you. They can then be unleashed in battle after equipping them to yourself, causing various effects (critical attack, defense up, etcetera). After they've been unleashed, they can then be used to summon powerful creatures, but you lose the buffing to your stats without the Djinn equipped. After a summon, the djinn need to recharge and will automatically reequip themselves after recharging, forming a rather well-crafted battle flow. A third gimmick is weapon unleashing, which occurs with rare equipment -- essentially, it's a critical hit with added effects and nice visuals, such as lowering enemy's attack or causing paralysis.
Another interesting part is the artifact system, in which you find or are able to buy valuable strong equipment. Should you sell them, you can buy them again at a raised price from any weapon or armor dealer in the world.
The difficulty curve jumps around a lot throughout the game, but it's at understandable intervals. The dungeons (like the Lighthouses) are long, but feel like you're accomplishing stuff along the way.
However, when you reach the end, you'll be wondering "what, that's it?" The game itself seems unfinished, but it leads to an incredible sequel that juxtaposes everything you learn in this game. Essentially, each game is half of the full story, and the writers at Camelot showed incredible vision in how they planned out everything that occurred in both games.
The only major complaint I could have would be the nonbattle artwork. The 3D rendered models are cute, but I think it could have been more successful as 2D sprites. The 3D effect makes characters and enemies look pixelated and choppy, whereas a much smoother effect could be more effectively utilized with 2D. Although, since the world itself is rendered in isometric 3D, it does work reasonably well.
All in all, this game is an amazing RPG that I was happy to see featured in SSBB, although I wish they had made one of the heroes of the series a character instead of an assist trophy. This series is a gem for the GBA, and a favorite of mine on par with many Final Fantasy games with longer stories and better graphics. I think that really speaks to Camelot's ability as creators. Unfortunately, the series seemed to have a great deal of closure at the end of the second game, which leads me to believe there's little chance of a third Golden Sun.

Regardless, give the series a try. If you like RPGs with a puzzle twist, you won't be dissapointed.

A Soggy Interlude

I realize I've been doing a lot of games that I like, but now it's time for something I don't like but played anyway like the masochistic bastard I am. (Am I channeling Yahtzee here?)

I'm talking, of course, about Super Mario Sunshine for the Gamecube. In theory, this game should have been great, as it was treading the same launch title Mario game path as Mario 64 -- unfortunately, it does not tread the path. It stumbles, cries, and wets itself.
The game looks very pretty and boasts great water physics for it's time, but why the hell would you bastardize the series by giving Mario a squirt gun? It was an innovative idea, but the best part of the game was when they took its gimmick away and made you do platforming. You know, the thing Mario games are supposed to be. They were excruciatingly hard at some points, but in a good, challenging kind of way, instead of the simpering preschooler sort of way that the rest of the game is.
The story is convoluted far beyond what a non-RPG Mario game requires, with a "shadow Mario" that frames you for polluting the sunny pianta capital of Delfino Island with wierd goop that sometimes resembles what Mario should clean up if he were doing what his real job was instead of rescuing a blonde with ADHD and stockholm syndrome. It gets even more bizarre by insinuating a lovechild between Peach and Bowser, who doesn't even show up beyond mechanical likenesses till exceptionally late in the game, leaving you wondering just who the hell you're up against and wandering around from point A to point phi.
It was a bad gimmick in the time when Nintendo was pushing the envelope by changing their star characters' games around so much, but it doesn't hold a candle to its peers of the age like Metroid Prime or Zelda: Wind Waker, or even Star Fox Adventures or Kirby's Air Ride. It's certainly not the second coming of Mario 64, simply because they tried to do something dumb with something that didn't need tweaking to be great and sell.
What's worse is that it's legacy continues as possibly the most useless Down-B move in Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

A gem from the past

Haven't been keeping up with this very well, so progressively this week, I'm going to try to ante up and make up for the lost time.

Tonight I bring you the tale of a game that experienced little love, a treasure by Treasure during the somewhat lackluster years of post-launch Nintendo 64. I speak of Mischief Makers, a the faux-3D 2-D side-scrolling platform gem buried amongst the burgeoning 3-D market.
This game tells the story of Professor Theo and his robotic maid, Ultra-Intergalactic-Cybot G Marina Liteyears during their visit to the planet Clancer. During their stay, the professor is kidnapped in a very Princess Peach-like fashion, whisked away by the evil empire ruling the planet Clancer. It's up to Marina to save her creator, and she does so with a rather unorthodox style of gameplay in a bizarre world where everything has a similar face.
The side-scrolling adventure's actions revolve mostly around Marina's grabbing move, after which she can shake, toss, or use objects. Objects shaken can activate other effects or shake loose Crystals or other items. Marina can use her jetpack to double-jump or jet sideways to avoid enemies, but mostly you'll want to be grabbing and tossing your foes as much as possible. Not every enemy is as easily defeated as that, and some levels and bosses can require fast reflexes, especially if you desire the Gold Gem that exists in every level.
The whimsy of this game comes in it's simplistic but frantic play style along with it's bizarre world and graphics. There are few shortcomings that come to mind -- the difficulty is adequately challenging, and each level offers a different type of obstacle or puzzle for you to overcome. If anything, the only complaint I'd have is that it does not have any sort of sequel or remake yet. If I could, I'd petition Nintendo to put this little gem on the Virtual Console.