Well, I just lost a fairly lengthy blog post because I was signed out of Giant Bomb for whatever reason, so here's a truncated version of it
The World Ends With You
Solved it Sunday night
I really enjoyed the combat, story, and the growth of main character Neku Sakuraba not in physical strength or combat abilities...but more of his maturation as a person.
More on that--the game is a good take on "emo" or "angsty" people. Good message for those of you with a proclivity for feeling that you don't need other people.
Ending is a little vague.
Because of vague ending, they allow players to get these "reports" for doing side-missions during each of the "days" in the game, which fill out the lore. Kind of a cheap way to have replayability (why not get it right the first time?) but it is effective. I want to get more information on the story.
Combat difficulty is scalable. I like.
What's Next?
Blue Dragon
Patapon 2
Plants vs. Zombies
I'll have reviews for Patapon 2 and Plants vs. Zombies by week's end, hopefully.
Well, my foray into JRPGs continues, with my completion of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII yesterday. I logged about 15-17 hours in the game, by my own estimation, and I'm glad that the game was not any longer than it was.
In my last blog, commenter Icemael said about Crisis Core:
"I loved Crisis Core at first, but after 20 hours I realized that all I had been doing was press X and stopped playing. Seriously, the only gameplay element in Crisis Core is battling, and the battles consist of pressing X until all enemies are dead. Sure, there's magic and crap, but why would I bother to use that when it's completely unnecessary?"
While Icemael does simplify the combat a bit too much, but the basic tenets of what he's saying ring true by game's end. By then, Crisis Core runs out of new interesting monsters or gameplay elements and the combat slows to a complete monotonous grind. You'll run into the same enemies ad nauseum and use the same strategies over and over again. Because of this, I really wanted the game to end by this time--and it did--to the game's credit.
Because of the constant stream of combat that plagues the last chapter of the game, (partially my fault for getting lost and doing about an hour's worth of additional side content that did not need to be completed) Crisis Core made me miss the ability to pick and choose whether or not to enter into a combat situation. Instead, it seemed like every couple of seconds I would be drawn into another battle that I really, really did not want to fight.
Despite all my apparent bitching, I definitely did enjoy the totality of my time with Crisis Core. The ending was poignant, even for someone that has not touched Final Fantasy VII, and the remarkable growth of Zack Fair's character was an experience in and of itself. If you haven't played Crisis Core and have a PSP, definitely look into picking up a copy--should be a cheap $19.99 new.
The next game that I'll be playing for my foray into RPGs is The World Ends With You. Expect a blog detailing my experience with that game upon completion.
Off-Topic Randomness:
Another college semester has ended--my 2nd to last semester as an undergraduate--and I got all my grades back. Pretty pleased--a 3.94 GPA. Got an A- in my Journalism Reporting class, due to my apparent inability to correct Associated Press Style issues. It's tricky as hell, and I figured it would blow my chance to get a 4.0. (Something I've never done and would have liked to do.)
But, hey, the class I got an A- from I probably learnt the most from, so that's all that matters, right?
I've also started to go on a diet and have been for the past month or so, with decent results so far. I've lost about 8 pounds since starting. (183 to 175). Between weight training, bike riding and eating right, I should get down to my 160-165 goal range within two months or less, so I'm pretty pumped about that.
I am not the smartest man ever born, let's just say that. Last night, I recorded a lengthy video blog on this very subject, but in my infinite wisdom, forgot to set the microphone settings on the camera so you all could actually HEAR what I was saying, as opposed to simply seeing my facial inflections, hand gestures and breath-taking good looks.
So, in honor of my now borked laptop (the only place I can do video blogs off of, unless I get a new camera, and that's not happening), I suppose a written summary of the events of the ill-fated video blog is in order.
Eternal Sonata
This game is the JRPG for players that want to love JRPGs, but hate the grinding that sometimes comes with the territory. With many JRPGs, at least in my experience, you can kill every enemy, look for every nook and cranny, etc., but at some point, you will reach a boss that will completely flatten you and your party straight the hell out, forcing you to do monotonous grinding. Monotonous grinding is for MMOs, thank you. With Eternal Sonata, I never experienced at boss characters that were tough enough to make me feel like I had to turn back and grind. In fact, I died only once during the entire game, and that was due to me not healing my party members properly, and the second try was much easier after I learned that valuable lesson.
I believe that I did end up grinding during some of the time I played, because there are certain "puzzle" (I use quotes because they're very, very light) elements to Eternal Sonata, sending you back and forth into rooms you've already visited, filling each room back up with monsters in the process. If you so choose, you can simply walk by most of the monsters and not even bother with leveling your party. But for me, I found it rewarding enough to continue to clear out rooms multiple times on many occassions, simply on the strength of the combat as well as the high experience rewards for defeating each set of monsters.
I'm glad I finally decided to take Eternal Sonata off my shelf and slide it in to my 360. I've had the game sitting for a number of months after I purchased it at a local Meijers along side Thrillville: Off the Rails, (for a grand total of $24 for both) but I suppose I wasn't really ready to start it at the time of the purchase. Either way, if you have not purchased this game yet--please do. Tremendous combat system that's fun and rewarding, graphics that still hold up 18 months after the game has been released, superb music, and a worthwhile story. (Moreso for the characters than the plot)
Because of Eternal Sonata, I've gone on somewhat of a JRPG kick, acquiring the following games:
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII The World Ends With You Blue Dragon
I have only played Crisis Core so far, but I have been enjoying it. Apparently it does have its "boss fight that knocks you on your ass" moments, but hopefully I'll learn the battle system well enough that it won't be a problem. Storyline is interesting enough. (I suppose it should be, for all the splurging I hear about FFVII, which I have not played.)
Don't have a whole lot to say about either The World Ends With You or Blue Dragon, other than I believe I'll be picking up a DSi either today or tomorrow, trading in my old DS to GameStop, which is giving a $50 credit towards the purchase of a DSi. Decent deal and is about as much as I could hope to get selling it on eBay, Amazon or Craiglist, so we'll see how that goes.
Sorry for turning this space into like...EndSights promotion corner and all that shit, but...personal blogging hasn't been at the top of my priority list. I do know, however, a lot of people still will read my posts from time to time--so, thanks for that. :P
But yeah, as the title suggests....We explored this topic over at EndSights. Do you think that Fallout 3 and Fable II (and the upcoming GTAIV and Prince of Persia) DLC adding story threads and additional elements are a good thing? A good value? A good trend, etc?
Went and overhauled EndSights this fine evening/morning. Took some time, but I'm pleased with the results. Some additional work is going to be done, but the heavy lifting is complete. Thanks to Talor for helping out getting the site up and to James for supplying some of the images that you will be seeing on the site.
Sorry, shameless self-promotion time. I conducted an e-mail interview with Airtight Games for EndSights. Many of their staff have worked on games like Crimson Skies...a great original Xbox game, and are now working in partnership with Capcom to bring out Dark Void.
If you're at all interested in the game, I hope you'll check out the interview, which can be found.....here!
I thought I'd take this opportunity to write an actual blog and stop making an ass out of myself in front of a video camera. My thoughts and prayers go out to the folks that were laid off over at 1UP/EGM. A bunch of talented people were let go--a group of people I've never talked to but they felt like friends nonetheless. Their podcasts were entertaining as hell and I will miss listening to them each and every week. I have no doubt that they will land on the feet, much like Jeff did after that whole mess. Just a shame to see things end so abruptly.
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