So hey guys, Grand Theft Auto V. According to “The Internet” it's pretty cool, but I give it a month before the backlash hits in-earnest and a vocal contingent starts going after that game, much as Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us got theirs. Probably won't stop it from earning a bazillion Game of the Year awards because games journalists are a bunch of predictable bastards (the other game that will dominate GOTY awards? Gone Home, because the 90s and games that are barely games are things that game websites eat like candy. Sorry Brothers.). For my part, I'll probably take a look at it at some point in the future despite not being into the way that Rockstar makes open world games and never really being into GTA in general. What does this have to do with anything in this blog? Not much, really. I just figured that being “relevant” is a great smokescreen for when I reveal that this blog is about a Russian-developed strategy game that came out four years ago and borrows liberally from other games that I happen to like a lot. Because of course it is. But first, other games that are also not relevant?

This blog is also about Might and Magic IX

But then it stopped working. I'm not sure if the problem is the game itself, my slowly imploding computer or me not wanting it enough, as it stands I cannot finish the dying breath of New World Computing's generally fantastic RPG franchise (Oh, except hell has frozen over and Might and Magic X not only exists, but seems promising based on the rough alpha build available on Steam Early Access). That didn't stop me from spending like 20something hours with it before it went kaput, and I have the saves on hand should it decide to cooperate. I'm going to invoke a variation of Wolpaw's Law and tell you my thoughts about it anyways, despite the part where I clearly haven't made it to the end of the game and beaten fake Loki, or whatever. I'm sure those who have finished this gem will object, but I will do as I must. For freedom. And for you, the reader.

Might and Magic IX came out in 2002 during the death-throes of 3DO. Released in a pre-alpha state, clearly needing another year or so of development, it's probably the most obvious casualty of the publisher's desperate attempts to stay afloat before going under entirely about a year later. Whereas I and many others will still maintain that Heroes of Might and Magic IV (also released that year) is both a totally enjoyable strategy game and one worthy of being a part of the series despite some fairly unfortunate issues, M&M IX earns no such sympathy. That's because, unsurprisingly, it's not very good. Oh, I still sort of enjoyed what I played of it, because if RE6 proved anything it's that I'm way too forgiving where my favorite game franchises are concerned, but there was no point where I said “This is a quality video game”. A lot of that simply boils down to the part where it's clearly unfinished. A lot of the ideas in the game, be they branching class paths, a streamlined skill system, the transition from the engine of the past three games to fully polygonal environments and the change in environment to the northern vikingish lands of Chedain all sound good on paper. In practice, branching classes means that your characters will be relatively homogenous for most of the game until they get their second promotion, exacerbated by the reduced number of skills. The transition to the already-aged Lithtech engine results in a profoundly ugly looking game with cramped outdoor environments and sprawling, empty cities. Finally, the new world doesn't really bother to tie itself in to previous games or Heroes IV aside from a handful of cursory nods. It is, in short, something of a mess. Perhaps less a mess than it probably could have been, considering the circumstances, but a mess all the same.

That being said, it's clearly a Might and Magic game. The dungeons are usually decently clever, with puzzles one would expect from a Might and Magic game (i.e. a lot of pushing levers) and the combat is still that pseudo real time thing that you can make turn-based with a press of the enter key. The main quest is structured like that of Might and Magic VI, which is to say that it's pretty nonlinear and you can go pretty much wherever from the start. Occasionally some of the series' goofy charm comes through in spite of the general blandness at hand with some of the weird one-off instances that happen here and there. The presence of a fan-made patch removes pretty much all of the game-breaking bugs. But it's not enough for me to tell you, the normal human to play it. It's enough for me, the self-loathing individual who likes Might and Magic a whole lot, but I'm probably not in the most positive life circumstances at the moment. If you want to play a Might and Magic game, play pretty much any of the other ones (the first two are ancient but the rest are surprisingly playable in this day and age). If you want a great RPG of that style that came out in the 21^st century, play Wizardry 8. It came out 6 months earlier, is also available on GOG and is sort of fantastic in general. Hell, I even have a code for it hanging around for some reason, though I'm waiting for the opportune moment to give it out. Maybe you are that opportune moment! But until then...

King's Bounty: Armored Princess

Is the semi-sequel/standalone expansion to King's Bounty: The Legend, something of a modern take on the old DOS classic King's Bounty, which in turn was the genesis for Heroes of Might and Magic, keeping this blog in the theme of the same 5 games I write about all the time. To say that these modern King's Bounty titles take influence from Heroes is putting it rather lightly. While the turn-based strategy elements are eschewed in favor of the more free roaming, RPG-like aspects of the original King's Bounty, the tactical combat will be familiar to pretty much everyone who has touched Heroes of Might and Magic at some point, to the level where you can probably guess certain units abilities. Hex Grid? Check. Black Dragons are totes def immune to magic? Yep. It's blatant and shameless, but that's ok because it's also pretty great. Not as great as heroes, but of course, what is? (Answer: probably Age of Wonders or Eador)

The previous paragraph was about these games in general, because between The Legend, Armored Princess (and mini expansion Crossworlds) and the recent Warriors of the North, they're all functionally similar. Why I finished Armored Princess first mostly comes down to the fact that I had a save file around 20 hours in from last year and needed something to play after Might and Magic IX broke. The flow of these games involves running around an overworld in real-time, recruiting various troops based on your leadership stat (another carry-over from OG King's Bounty), solving quests and engaging in tactical combat between armies. The game is sectioned off into islands, and unless you're overleveled like I was by the end of the game, you'll probably not have the leadership necessary to complete them in one go. Since everything is in real time, you can totally lure monsters away, juke around them and grab whatever they were guarding, something that becomes easier once you gain the ability to fly around and above anyone you find threatening, though it should also be mentioned that you start being able to deal with overwhelming odds much more easily by the end of the game, when you have the skills and spells necessary to overcome the battle of numbers. An increased understanding of your tactical options simply by playing through the game doesn't hurt either (Contrary to what you may think, Snakes are your friends, thanks to their inherent reach attack and poison abilities).

Because of the sheer breadth of units available, you really have the opportunity to experiment, which helps make the tactical combat continually fresh, especially if you don't stick to the same units constantly. For my part, I just sort of ran around with armies of ultra-expensive dragons by the end of the campaign, and that worked out alright because of the absurd amount of gold that ends up thrown at you. I'd say that it's probably not a bad idea to play on hard if you already know how to play these games, or maybe play as a Mage since they seem pretty gimped early on. There are also Boss Battles on occasion, for once something that Heroes went on to steal rather than the other way around. They're usually not incredibly tough, though you'll probably want to stick with tankier units and shooters when handling such foes.

All this said, I could see how someone could get burned out before the end of the 40ish hours it takes to complete Armored Princess. That's a pretty long time, but thankfully the end game drags a lot less than the beginning, when you're still surgically taking out the armies you can handle. All in all, it was nice to play a game that wasn't soul-crushingly horrible for once, though I still have to finish Kameo (not actually soul-crushing) and then I need to figure out what to play next. I may not have access to video games in the coming future, so prioritizing the important (or bad) stuff has become less of a leisurely suggestion and more of a goal. Maybe I'll make a poll again! Maybe I'll play one of the other King's Bounty games! Maybe I'll pick something off that horrible, forsaken list! Maybe Tomb Raider? The future is bright my friends. Here, have a speedrun.

DOUBLE POST FTW I will now fill this spot with a funny gif.

Weird, I just started playing King Bounty: The legend today (there is a Steam sale RIGHT NOW for all of the King Bounty games; I got Legend, Armored Princess, and Crossworlds for like $8.50.) So far, I'm not sure how much I am liking it honestly. The combat is so monotonous right now. Maybe I will just skip ahead to Armored Princess.

Hey, I'm not a monster, I'm FIFTY monsters. You just can't see the little "50" in the corner. Unsurprisingly, I have all the King's Bounty games and haven't touched a single one. It's the sort of thing one just seems to accrue, like so much moss. Tactical moss, with a tactically-dressed naif on the cover.

I gotta say, you're a much more productive unemployed person than I've been. I've been struggling with Radiant Historia all week and I'm barely halfway through.

I have a save file in King's Bounty: The Legend that I think is pretty late in the game, but I haven't gone back to finish it yet. The one thing that burned me out is that there's no quick way to travel between where you are and say the nearest town, or any town really. It was fine early on in the game when my home town was always in close proximity to where I was, but now I'm so far away that it takes forever to get there. The battles were getting pretty tough too so you kinda always needed to have your army at full strength, which meant a lot of running back and forth to purchase new units every other battle.

Also, trying to remember which towns carried which units was a pain the ass. At some point I stopped caring and just bought whatever units that were available nearest to me.

@mento: I know nothing about Radiant Historia other than it's the last good DS game or something, and... Time Travel?

@tordah:

That's also something that's fixed somewhat in Armored Princess, between the ability to fly and the smaller environments. I know what you mean though, it's difficult to give up on using the same handful of units when they've proven so effective.

@ilikepopcans: FUUUUUUUUUUShit. Totally bought Warriors of the North on not-sale last night for like $15 more than what steam has it as. I hate it when that happens. Also, yeah, the combat can get a bit monotonous, especially earlier on. Based on what I remember of The Legend, Armored Princess is paced a bit better pacing-wise because environments are more contained. But the combat is the same, sooooo.... thanks for the gif?

@arbitrarywater: Time travel and a million endings. Be sure to catch them all if you want the best ending.

On the subject of Radiant Historia: PLAY THAT SHIT. It's like Chrono Trigger if Chrono Trigger had a decent story!

On subject (sort of), I thought this blog was a drunk collaboration between us regarding Princess Crown.

I must be reading this wrong. Chrono Trigger has a bad story? What?

@believer258:

It's the one element of the game that I'm not a fan of. It's like the developers realized that a time traveling RPG would be a good idea, but then never quite figured out just what to do with it.

They did a hell of a lot with it? They gave you a bunch of different areas and time periods and different interrelated plots and linked them all together quite well? You need to expand on this one. Like, a lot. And one of us is in dire need of a replay of Chrono Trigger (and I'm not excluding myself).

Yea, probably. The last time I experienced it (not played, experienced) was when I read the Japanese script to it a few months back. Fun fact: while Frog doesn't have his trademark medieval speak, Ayla does have her cavewoman speak.

From what I remember, though, it never felt like time travel itself played an integral role in any of that. At best, it was something like "Oh no! We need this thing, but it doesn't exist anymore! We need to go back to this time to get it.", and at worst, it felt less like time travel and more like hopping between vaguely related dimensions.

I'd say some of it's because the writers spread themselves too thin. If you're covering a period of nearly 65 million years, it's gonna be pretty hard to focus in on one thing in particular and easier to make some stupid mistakes (man, was that "La means fire, Vos means big" moment dumb).

The DS version completely removed Frog's medieval speak. Now, it's more comparable to a Winchester-ish proper-but-modern speak, not psuedo-medieval speak. Actually, if you ever do replay it, replay that one, because it has been re-translated and a lot of the graphics were completely re-done.

But the time travel did play a role in most of that. Practically every JRPG, ever, has its dumb moments as well as its story moments that don't have anything to do with the rest of the story. If it's badly done here, then it's badly done everywhere. As for stuff tying in, a lot of it ties together in the later game, especially with the whole Kingdom of Zeal thing and Marle's amulet being related to the Kingdom of Zeal and Melchior originally being a resident of Zeal.

EDIT: Honestly, most of the things that happen in that game are related back to the Kingdom of Zeal; it's something of an anchoring point. for the whole thing.

Gonna have to agree with Video_game_king on both of those points- play the hell out of Radiant Historia, which was criminally overlooked, and Chrono Trigger's writing was generally...well, not offensive, but not really actively good in any direction either.

@believer258: I think what he means is that you could easily remove the time travel aspect and it would take very little retooling to make it work- they never really settle on it's rules and don't usually use it for much that couldn't be replicated in other ways. They could easily be different "worlds", or dimensions, or even just different continents that your sailing/flying around to and you'd have to change very little to make it work. It's in contrast to Radiant Historia, which, while not perfect about it, has a pretty clearly defined set of rules for what time travel can and cannot do which manipulating is inextricably linked with the larger (quite good) plot.

Exactly this. Two things about that:

1. The rules it does seem to come up with aren't connected very strongly to anything and aren't explored in any real depth. For instance, Marle disappearing into the nothingness because of a time paradox. That's the only time it's ever mentioned in the story. There aren't any other time paradoxes in the game, and I think they only ever discuss avoiding one once after that (and even then, not directly (I'm thinking of the "get a clone for Chrono" thing)). Same goes for the "we're being led by a higher power" plot point late in the game. Seems like it could be really cool, but the writers seem to drop it as soon as it's brought up, so it comes off as really abrupt and out of place.
2. Time travel actually seems to make things stupider for no reason. I'm pretty sure I could phrase that better, but that's the best I could do right now. Like the Lavos thing I mentioned. It establishes that Ayla is speaking English instead of a cave language, which brings up a ton of questions, like "Why the hell is she speaking English?", "How did her term for Lavos stick when she only invented it in the presence of people that didn't live in the area (or something like that)", and "HOW DID THAT TERM (AND THE LANGUAGE IN GENERAL) REMAIN PRETTY MUCH THE SAME FOR 65 MILLION YEARS!?".

I don't think so, I think the events of the different time periods in the game are so interrelated that you can't just change it to dimension hopping and have it work the same way.

They don't really need to set up rules like Radiant Historia does because the time periods they're traveling between are hundreds of years apart at least, instead of a few minutes apart. Besides, it does have rules, it just doesn't outright give you exposition on them. For instance, if you take something from 600 AD, that something won't exist in 1000 AD, etc.

It's because I played the DS re-translation, isn't it? Yeah that must be it. What I've seen of the original SNES translation isn't the worst, but it isn't all that great either. That DS translation, though, was pretty well-written as far as I remember. They translated it from the original Japanese again instead of just fixing parts of the SNES translation, and it shows.

But, again, I said earlier in this thread that Chrono Trigger is due for a replay, and I guess I need to go back and replay it.

Finally, what I've played of Radiant Historia does, indeed, seem wonderfully well-written and very clever with its time travel mechanics and ideas. I'm not saying that Chrono Trigger is a better story, but I think that Chrono Trigger's story holds up very well. Especially considering that I didn't play it at all in my childhood.

Aw, damn it, now I've gotta double post.

1) I thought that Marle's pendant was what caused the issue in the first place? Nevertheless, I won't deny that that the story doesn't have a few muddy points. I'm trying to make the case that Chrono Trigger has a good and interesting story, not a perfect one without holes.

2) Any other examples of how time travel makes things stupider? Obviously Ayla speaks English instead of a cave language for the convenience of both the writers and the people playing the game. I don't think this story demands a Star Trek-level of obsession with how every detail works (an obsession that I don't really agree with, by the way). It's a story beat that lacks a handwave, but it's really not a big deal. Especially in a story as generally light-hearted as this one.

On a final note, didn't Chrono Cross do the dimension-hopping thing? I never played it and don't know if I want to, considering that some of the people who love Chrono Trigger dislike Chrono Cross.

@believer258:

No, iv'e played both versions, and don't have childhood memories of Trigger either. And like I said, I didn't think it was bad. Just kinda....bland, I guess. The stuff with Zeal was the most interesting bit. It's funny, but I think Chrono Cross's writing went wrong in the exact opposite direction. Trigger was coherent but safe and felt kinda bog-standard, time-travel or no (maybe if I HAD played it when it was new and exciting it wouldn't seem that way compared to the games of it's own era). Cross was full of interesting ideas but must've been plotted by a distracted schizophrenic.

Still though, to each his own. If you got something more out of it, good on you!

@believer258:

1. I thought the pendant was just what got them there in the first place. Wasn't it the guards finding Marle and calling off the search for her ancestor that caused the time paradox?
2. I wouldn't be complaining about this if the game hadn't deliberately drawn my attention to it. I wasn't wondering where Lavos got its name before that moment; explaining "it's a combination of words from Ayla's language", though, makes me wonder why she wasn't speaking that language in the first place. Or why none of her friends speak it, either. As for another example of time travel making things stupider, TVTropes has a good example here.

@towersixteen: Yeah, I enjoyed Chrono Trigger a whole lot.

1) To be honest, that section of the game is one I keep forgetting. Chrono Trigger's best parts come after you fight Magus.

2) It's still a pretty minor thing.

While we're on the topic of TVTropes, I was dicking around there and wound up coming across this without even looking for it. Interesting coincidence.

It's the minor things that count.

Wonderful. I can barely scrape together enough interest for a single comment on my own blogs, yet a single mention of Radiant Historia on someone else's begat a lengthy to-and-fro. Bodes well for an eventual RH write-up, anyway.

Oh, yeah, talking of which: Radiant Historia is pretty good. I'm not a big fan of all the repetition and the party member revolving door thing, but the story's heading to some interesting places already.

I feel like I had some words for that M&MVII speedrun too, except they're not so much words as incredulous noises. It did give me an idea for one of these premium feature comics I'm meant to be working on. I've had comic writer's block all week, so thanks for that. Meanwhile, you need to get M&MIX working again and push through it. Forehead Dare isn't going to wait around forever to stab you all in the back.

I love how this blog mostly about a 2009 Russia turn-based strategy game turns into a massive conflict about the story in a 1995 JRPG. But hey, who wants more gifs now that the system works with them?

All this talk about Chrono Trigger is going to lead to me getting back into Chrono Cross, so when you are stabbed by a shadowy figure late at night yelling about color fields, know it was me. Fun Fact: I never finished Chrono Trigger, since the friend I was borrowing it from asked for his copy back. In case y'all were wondering, it was the DS version.

@ilikepopcans: @mento: @arbitrarywater

Why don't'cha just emulate the DS version of Chrono Trigger? Square Enix doesn't seem to be printing off anymore copies of what is almost certainly the ideal version of the game, so have at it.

EDIT: Where's the rest of my fucking post? Why are Mento's and ilikepopcans's names up there?

Mento, don't feel too bad. It was almost completely off topic. I barely read any of Arbitrarywater's post.

Popcans, what anime do you keep posting gif's from?

I don't want to embarrass you or anything but that last one is from Silver Spoon.

y'know...the series by the author of...Full Metal Alchemist...

@believer258: I could grab a copy of Chrono Trigger if I wanted to play a good JRPG. As you can see with my recent history... that is not the case.

Silver Spoon................................ Uchouten Kazoku

I did not know that! That's weird, with FMA being this big action, alchemist heavy show and Silver Spoon is a slice of life with high school kids at a farm school. I CANT BELIEVE THEY ARE FROM THE SAME PERSON!!!

@believer258: Oh, no bad feelings whatsoever. I got some sweet feedback for that Experimental Pack thing from outside the site. And you should read AW's blog, it's fun stuff. He deserves more support for his soulcrushing endeavors, otherwise he might stop doing them.

Just to keep things on-off-topic, I've been considering a list of interesting time-travel uses in games. Trying to find more examples beyond the usual Grandfather Paradoxes/Closed Time Loops at the moment.

Does Time Gal count? I know that there are better examples out there, but can't think of much else. (Fire Emblem: Awakening might not count.)

Yep. Chrono Cross was dimension hopping rather than time travel. It was a good concept to use, but just about everything about the story and writing aside from the dimension hopping sinks it.

For what it's worth, I think the combat is pretty neat thus far, with color zones and D&D style spell slots. But yeah, I also haven't reached the point where they (poorly) attempt to tie it all in with Chrono Trigger. We'll see what I think of it after that...

Kings Bounty was definitely a one off kind of deal for me as well after which it just became a cycle of boring monotony. I played through the original release mostly enjoying it, while discovering all the features, learning the systems, the ins and outs. But it started becoming a slog towards the end. By the time I started playing the expansion (AP) it kind of became a chore, don't rightly remember if i ever finished it , probably did. Took one look at the later expansions and said "fuck this im out".

Speaking of your first paragraph, GTA V will not get the backlash that you so tongue and cheek perceive. It's a big one, a good one, it's up there. The best GTA game for sure. As for your other first paragraph flirtations, well, Infinite deserved its criticism as there were flaws assured. The Last of Us, yeah, not seeing the backlash as much, pretty much beloved. Of course, The Last of Us is very video gamey. But a damn good story and some awesome A.I. companionship go a long way to wash away the bad taste of being just a video game.

The truth is, I should buy Wizardry 8. I have an old copy of Computer Gaming Monthly with the review. Love that old rag. Always thought I would like it. As for the meat of your blog, they all sound intriguing. They really do. If I were half the gamer as you, I would be a better gamer.

@tennmuerti: Maybe I'm just in a mindset that appreciates monotony right now, because I started on Warriors of the North and, unsurprisingly, that game plays a lot like the one I just spent 25 hours finishing up. I certainly stopped playing The Legend after that first area, so I can understand your complaints.

@claude: I just like niche shit and causing pain to myself, both aspects of which can be found in this blog. The only people I will lord over as being "more hardcore" are my friends who only play COD and Skyrim, but of course that usually backfires when they point out how much time I spend with the video games on a daily basis. If you have 50+ hours/$10 to kill and a bit of masochism on your side, Wizardry 8 is a great RPG. Thanks to its level scaling system it can get a bit rough early on, but I still like it a great deal. More than Might and Magic IX in any case.

The ONE time the forum legitimately discusses Chrono Trigger and I'm a week too late!

Legitimately? The blog itself has nothing to do with Chrono Trigger.

Fixed.

Hey, don't let me stop you. I might as well have retitled this blog "Let's talk about the mechanics of time-travel in Chrono Trigger and also I wrote about some games"

@arbitrarywater:

No, the current title still fits. There's a King, blogging is involved, and I guess you're the Arbitrary Princess?

@arbitrarywater: Could you as the resident M&M expert help me out with some advice. Now I've played all the HoMM strategy games in the series, but only once did I ever dabble in the rpg M&M part of the franchise (it was 8 i believe but i didn't get very far into it at the time). With the current dry spell of new releases (at least ones that interest me) i've been digging into memory lane a bit. What would you recommend as the best M&M to play?

@tennmuerti:

EDIT: Weird, it ate half of my post. You could probably start with VI. It's harder, longer and less polished than VII, but you're a seasoned enough fellow that I think you wouldn't have a big problem.

Just a pro tip: Don't bother putting any points into diplomacy.

@arbitrarywater: Cheers!