Strategy Games, Dracula, Thievery, and other wonderful uses of time and money

Oh hey, what's up? As promised, I've been busy with school and junk, and since finals are right around the corner, I figured I should probably write something about the things I've been playing in sporadic chunks before things get really crazy. Unsurprisingly, video games are still dumb. Know what else are still dumb? Lengthy research essays.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Guys, I have an apology to make. It has been months since the last blog about video games that weren't either bleeding-edge recent or only one or two years old. That has to be rectified. Thus, I will regale you with tales of another old-ish game, hearkening back to the far flung year of 2005. I was like 12 or 13. The newest console I owned was the hot commodity known as the Nintendo DS, though at that point in 2005 the best game for it was Advance Wars Dual Strike, probably the best Advance Wars game. It would be a few more years before Nintendo's fledgling handheld acquired a library rivaling that of its predecessor, the GBA, so people took what they could get. I imagine Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (a hilariously nonsensical subtitle, given that it's a sequel to Aria of Sorrow and not the dawn of anything. But hey, I guess the temptation to have a “DS” acronym was too strong) was one of those games. I actually borrowed this game from a friend when I was like 12, but I couldn't tell you a thing about my experience other than that I didn't finish it. Now, I have finished it. Actually I finished it a couple of weeks ago.

It's a... well-made Metroidvania Spacewhipper (to steal a term from @mento) that took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 hours. Nothing more, nothing less. The story is barely there, something about it being in the future, you being the reincarnation of Dracula and much like Symphony of the Night it's really easy to get the bad ending. It follows a formula that had already been done 3 times before, and would be done twice again, and being a direct sequel it seems to take even fewer risks than the average Igarashi Castlevania. The tactical soul system, the defining characteristic of both Aria and Dawn of Sorrow has a neat, pokemon-esque “collect 'em all” mentality that will most certainly drive completionists up the wall. Every enemy in the game has a power associated with them, be it throwing some variety of projectile, summoning familiars to clean up for you or just passively increasing your stats. Getting said souls is usually accomplished with MMO-style farming tactics, killing the same enemies over and over again until you get the drop, made more aggravating when the drop has a 3-star rarity. Get over that hump and the game does just fine for itself. There's plenty of hidden stuff to discover, but like all of these kinds of games, hidden stuff usually just makes you ridiculously powerful and turns the rest of the game into a breeze, which is sort of what happened to me. There isn't an inverted castle (there is an equivalent to Richter mode), so it's not nearly as massive as a SotN If there are any real grievances I have with Dawn of Sorrow, it's the sloppily implemented touch-screen garbage, forcing you to grab your stylus (or finger) and draw a symbol during the middle of a boss fight. Other than that unfortunate bit, it's a game that I enjoyed but wasn't blown away by.

Thief

I have not yet completed Eidos Montreal's ill-received reboot to those stealth games I really like, but I'm actually sort of enjoying myself thus far. If it were not for the other games on this list distracting me, this blog would probably be entirely about Thief, but as it stands I clearly wasn't compelled enough to not put it down for a bit. Thief is... a very conflicted, borderline schizophrenic game. On one hand, it clearly borrows a lot of cues from Dishonored (which in turn took its share of cues from the old Thief games, which makes this a “snake eating its own tail” sort of situation) and otherwise tries to be a modern-ass video game by throwing in a multitude of systems aimed at assisting (or perhaps coddling) the player, and on the other hand it's very much a straightforward, pure stealth game that would not be out of place in the early 2000s, where getting caught isn't a very good thing and you don't have a ton of options to fight back. I don't think it fills either role as well as other games have done in the past, but I've found it... surprisingly decent? It's not blowing my mind or anything, but it deserves more credit than some reviews have given it. The story deserves zero credit, for turning the neat little world of Thief into gritty Victorian England (did I mention gritty? It's soooooooo edgy maaaaaan.) and using the word “Fuck” instead of the word “Taffer”. That is all. Expect my full thoughts eventually.

Divinity Original Sin Beta

I've been rather clear about my pervasive dislike of Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga. I found it to dull action-RPG that tried too hard to punch above its weight with underwhelming results. That didn't stop me from backing Divinity Original Sin, which seems like a classically-inspired CRPG created for the sole purpose of encouraging the player to break it at any possible opportunity. I didn't get very far in my play of the Beta (I messed around with it a bit when it was in alpha, but not that much), but when I did, I did it cooperatively with a friend. That seems like a recipe for chaos, so when our team of Source-Hunting ladies weren't squabbling with one another about freeing chickens, we were constantly blowing things up, accidentally killing innocent people or otherwise making nuisances of ourselves. I'm not sure if that's the optimal way to play the game (like the idea of playing through Baldur's Gate cooperatively), but I'm glad that it exists. Like Wasteland 2, I've mostly had my fill of the beta and will probably only mess around with it a bit more before the full release.

Etrian Odyssey IV

It's still an Etrian Odyssey game. I like the tweaks they made to the skill system and the presence of multiple dungeons, the soundtrack is quite good, the some of the character designs are still sort of creepy and sometimes my party will get wiped out by enemies I had no business fighting. Sold.

Age of Wonders III

Age of Wonders III is a fantasy turn-based strategy game. So obviously I bought it. The series doesn't so much owe a lot to Heroes of Might and Magic (especially when compared to King's Bounty) as it does owe a lot to Master of Magic, an old DOS 4X game that you might have heard me wax eloquently about once or twice. You build up an empire of your particular race, research new spells, control territory, get war declared on you for no reason and then engage in tactical combat. You'll probably cast magic to mess other people up, and at one point my Elf Dreadnought (technology man) besieged an enemy town with a bunch of cannons and musketeers (that's right, Elf Musketeers). Unlike say... Heroes VI (which I thought was okay) or Disciples III (which I thought was very much not okay), it's a safe, iterative sequel, which I guess makes sense when you remember that the last one came out 10 years ago. I didn't play nearly enough Age of Wonders 1 or Shadow Magic to be able to make any sort of comparative qualitative judgments, but I will continue playing it because it's pretty great and it has also been a while since a game like this has grabbed my attention (that last time being Eador Genesis). It's a pity that online multiplayer seems to have some sort of issue with my college internet firewall, because I've always thought that Age of Wonders' simultaneous turns function made it a lot more attractive for playing with others and not devouring dozens of hours in the process.

FTL Advanced Edition

The new expansion for FTL is an expansion that revolves around adding more stuff, and it just so happens that more stuff is exactly what I wanted out of a FTL expansion. While I will still decry the game as occasionally being a little too luck-based, I've still had fun trying to unlock all of the new ship variants while silently cursing the fact that getting the Mantis and Slug cruisers is up to the whims of fate (or me beating the rebel flagship, which has happened all of 3 times. Somehow I have the crystal cruiser). I will continue to play more of this game, since it works well in hour-long bursts in-between me freaking out about whatever the heck this essay is going to be about. Speaking of that... I'm going to do some of that now. Bye!

Sounds like you've been busier than I have of late, if this smorgasbord is anything to go by. I need to get out of the habit of sticking with a game until it's beaten and just try a dozen backlog items to see which ones are worth continuing with.

Even more pretenders to the Master of Magic throne, you say? I'm going to have to try all these in one fell swoop sometime soon. I just need to get Fallen Enchantress and I'll have enough to make a comprehensive investigation.

As for the others: I still don't know how you'd get strong enough to beat that rebel flagship in FTL unless you've been extraordinarily lucky throughout the entire run. I was gifted the PC version of Thief but can't play it, which is causing some amount of chagrin. I've yet to play any Divinity game beyond the first, Divine Divinity, which I thought was an interesting RPG. Dawn of Sorrow is indeed a fine SpaceWhipper, and I'll continue to not understand Etrian Odyssey's appeal despite having played games like it for almost 25 years now.

So are you a guy who pauses a lot in FTL?

I pause that game almost constantly, to maximize my chances of success and try and hold off the panic that sets in if I don't pause and shit starts to go bad. And shit can go bad so very, very quick in that game.

Also all the new advanced edition content seems to have made easy mode a lot tougher. I haven't even been able to get to the damn flagship on easy, even after beating the vanilla game twice on easy and once on normal just this week.

Looking back, that's pretty much my opinion of Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow as well. It's good and fun, but little about it stood out as remarkable. Order of Ecclesia, presumably one of those "two more" games you mentioned, isn't really a Metroidvania game. It's actually been mostly linear in my experience. I've found it pretty fun so far, too, though it is pretty difficult.

Been meaning to try the new FTL. I never actually beat the original because I got too annoyed with it, but the idea of having more options is immediately appealing. If you're gonna make people do the same thing over and over again, variety is basically a necessity.

*twitches involuntarily*

So.... Would you recommend Divinity II? I've been thinking about grabbing it on and off. I do know @humanityplague had a few good things to say before they updated. At least, I think he did?

I played Dawn of Sorrow for the first time last year, back to back with Portrait of Ruin and I liked this one a whole lot more. I really liked that green scorpion tail, but I got stuck on the last boss in the second mode.

I might be getting them mixed up, but this is the one where you have to tap ice blocks? because I hated doing that... any of the touch screen stuff really.

@gunstarred: Dawn of Sorrow is the one with the dumb touch stuff like tapping the ice, yes. IIRC Portrait of Ruin is considered to be among the weakest of the GBA/DS Spacewhippers, but I've never touched it myself.

@earlessshrimp:

I've been rather clear about my pervasive dislike of Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga. I found it to dull action-RPG that tried too hard to punch above its weight with underwhelming results.
The text of this blog

So yes, clearly. If you want someone who actually stomached the game long enough to beat it, ask @sparky_buzzsaw what he thought of it.

@pyromagnestir: I've played every single Infinity Engine game. Of course I pause like crazy. And yeah, easy mode seems to be a bit tougher than it used to be, but I still got to the rebel flagship with 2 basic lasers still equipped in my most recent run (and therefore had zero chance of penetrating its shields)

@mento: Yeah, this blog is sort of just "what have I been playing since the last time I wrote a thing?", which is to say around 3 weeks. Given the breadth of what I've been playing, yeah, you could say I haven't stuck with anything super long (other than me beating Castlevania). Saying "Pretenders to the Master of Magic throne" is disingenuous, since pretty much all games that weren't directly influenced by Heroes were influenced by MoM instead the same way every Space 4X owes some amount of homage to Master of Orion or its sequel.

I seem to recall that you played a bit of the first Age of Wonders a couple of years ago and weren't especially into it, but if you want some other fantasy strategy games that are like that other fantasy strategy game, I canhook youup fordays, brother. For the record, I think Age of Wonders is probably the best of the non-Heroes fantasy TBS clan, though I also have a soft spot for Eador, as overtly dense and bogged down as it is.

@arbitrarywater: I did read that, since it was the opening sentence, but I read too quickly at the end,

but I'm glad that it exists

Is what ended up confusing me since I took it out of context. My bad!

Portrait of Ruin is the Donkey Kong 64 of IGA Castlevanias, in that it's very similar to all the previous games of its kind except with about 50% more of everything. That's great if you weren't already burned out after playing through a bunch of very similar predecessors, and simply too much if you were.

Also, I still have Disciples 2, Eador and Warlock on my list of stuff to try out this year (as well as digital copies of each sitting in my Steam library). I think I could probably cope with three instead of four MoM-inspired games, if I really tried. I'm using "pretender" here to just mean someone with a stake to that throne, because as far as I'm aware all these games actually point to MoM as a direct inspiration.

@mento: Describing anything as the "Donkey Kong 64 of X" is not a plus for me. I loved that game as a kid, but it's easily the weakest of Rare's N64 offerings. Now I'm trying to think of other games I can superfluously throw that label on. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is the Donkey Kong 64 of modern military shooters.

As much as I enjoyed Dawn of Sorrow, I enjoyed Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia a lot more. The need to draw on the touch screen in the middle of a boss fight got tiresome, though it didn't prevent me from seeing the game to the end.

But seriously, Order of Ecclesia is the best DS Castlevania.

FTL managed to spice itself up enough to make me want to play it some more; once I have sufficient time to do so on a regular basis. Granted I would have preferred buying a 5 or 10 dollar expansion instead of just getting one for free, but what can you do.

Yeah, it has the most interesting bosses/patterns out of all the DS games. I really like that you go back to the town and do a bunch of mini quests.

There are a handful of glyph combinations that are completely game breaking though.

@earlessshrimp: Never ever ever play Divinity 2. Ever. Ever ever ever ever. Never. If someone should try to give you a copy, punch 'em in the face and run, preferably to a church. I hear their kind of evil can't cross into holy ground.

@sparky_buzzsaw: So it's that good, eh? I wouldn't say no to evil. Especially unholy evil, that's always pretty fun

Woa woa! @arbitrarywater is for once ahead of me in terms of playing current games. Shit I need to catch up, get back on the game train, but D3:RoS ate a bunch of my time and now i don't have almost any time due to some extra work :(

Is AoW3 better then say Warlock?

It honestly seems to me like the sort of game you'd get if you combined the Metroidvania exploration style with a world more akin to Castlevania II.

I really want to play Age of Wonders 3, but I just bought a PS3 to catch up on some games and my backlog is bad enough.

I think that's enough for me to know I won't really be enjoying myself with Thief. It sounds like a bad attempt at mixing the old with the new, I dunno, I'm not feeling it. Human Revolution did that masterfully, so how would you compare the two? Does Thief's gameplay deliver the freedom and incredible interactivity that DXHR delivered? Somehow I doubt it.

@tennmuerti: Yes, absolutely. I thought Warlock was a neat trifle of a game, but Age of Wonders is far better and has a bit more variety than my escapades in Warlock, which mostly consisted of me building a really big army followed by making land bridges to invade my foes.

I'm going to say no to that question. It makes a cursory attempt at giving you multiple routes, but at most that consists of "sometimes there's a grate you can remove to sneak around some guys". It's no Deus Ex.

Actually this makes me think of the freedom and interactivity of Thief games in specific. I'm not sure whether I should be comparing the new Thief to DXHR or to older Thiefs..

I've only played Deadly Shadows, and funnily enough, while I loved it I can't remember what about it was love-worthy. This is confusing my brain.. but the bottom line is that I have a gut feeling that the new Thief isn't as, let's say, 'flexible,' as Deadly Shadows was.

Do you have any input on this to help my confused brain?

To be honest, Thief is about as confused as you are. I've only played 4 of the 9 main story missions (and a handful of side stuff, in addition to robbing the city blind), but the general level design and gameplay flow has a tad more linear than the more open-ended areas that were present in the original games. Sometimes the game resembles old Thief/Deus Ex in its flexibility, and sometimes it's pretty much a succession of contained stealth room puzzles where the solution is either to knock everyone out or get past them without being seen. It has a playstyle system similar to Splinter Cell Blacklist where you're encouraged to either stay unseen the entire time, knock everyone out or "take advantage of your environment", which is the one that I have gotten exclusively.

I hope I've answered your question. If not... it seems like the kind of game that will be $20 on steam sooner rather than later.