As another semester begins I continue my trek into .hack Infection and Final Fantasy VI. I expect my play times to be more infrequent so I've started writing down what I was doing and what was going on after each time I play. Hopefully these games will be wrapped up sooner rather than later.

I'm about 15 hours through .hack Infection and I'm really warming up to it. I was pretty upset with the visuals to begin with but I've moved past that and found a lot of mechanics that I enjoy. Most notably, I've never once been lost in the game. Despite the fact that you have to manage information inside The World and from your desktop, the game is paced and designed perfectly so you are always progressing if you want to. It shows some real skill in pacing and story management that I just have to stop and admire.

Another great little tidbit are the books of Ryu. These books track your in game stats, like chests open and amount of money spent. The best part is that while you increase your numbers you unlock items outside of The World like wallpapers for your desktop or menu music. It's not a huge deal but it is nice to see.

With any luck it will be a while until I hit the grind wall. So far it seems like there are enough things to pursue that it will be a non-issue.

I'm looking less favorably on Final Fantasy VI though. The game is really jarring to me story wise. I just finished Sabin's segment and now everyone is together preparing for the epic battle. At first I thought the concept of the group splitting up was interesting but the more I played it the more I disliked it. The segments difference in length felt awkward, like the developers had clear favorite characters. The other story part I don't understand is the random narration. Kappas tell you game mechanics, moogles select what segment you want to play, and then random words show up to tell you what is going on in the story. It feels clunky and takes me away from the story.

The pieces are there, I guess I can understand how this would be someones favorite entry of the series, but not for me. I enjoy the characters but everyone's favorite villain Kefka seems dumb to me. Like is...it...supposed to be a clown? Also is it pure evil or humorous? If this is someone's favorite villain let me know what the point is. Actually, explain to me why this entire game is great. Right now it is missing the mark with me.

Have a good week.

-Chemystery

We all know where this is going. The Pokemon bank has been delayed since its original release of December 27th. Since then Nintendo has kept a dead silence about the new release date. The cause of the bank's delay was cited as the unforeseen traffic from the Christmas holiday and the release of the bank in Japan.

The "pokebank" allows trainers to store up to 3000 pokemon on cloud saves. It is the only method of getting your beloved Pokemon from your older games into your current game and has a small subscription fee of 5$ a year with the first month being free to use. By far the biggest promise of all was that the bank would stop the transfer of hacked pokemon to the new game. This was supposed to improve the Pokemon economy and force trainers to make use of the new breeding innovations.

All of these things are great for the game and meta game. The community was pretty excited for it and generally looked favorably on it. But once again, Nintendo can't deliver on their online promises. The winter break has passed for most students and the holiday rush is long gone and we still can't move our Pokemon. We should have expected this though, Nintendo and the internet don't usually get along.

It seems like Nintendo only wants to deal with the internet in the most arbitrary and difficult ways. From the difficult use of Friend Codes to the baffling gauntlet of logins to register your Pokemon account online. I can't imagine very many people happy with the current state of affairs with the connectivity of the Nintendo consoles. I can't name a single game that I have played online from Nintendo since Mario Kart 7. Smash Bros. is way too shoddy online to function and few games allow you to interact with a community that is not on your friends list. They are sacrificing fun for safety and it's alienating a large market. Even when they do go online it is just archaic and bulky There are glimmers of hope though.

With the advent of the NintendoID it appears an effort is being made to streamline things. This ID ties together the wii, wii U, and 3DS for one account and puts your wallet together across all three consoles as well. A good step forward even with the shaky execution over Christmas. Now for the step backwards, The MiiVerse. An entity I can only describe as a forum without a use. I took one brief look at it on my 3DS, saw the list of what it was and left. I doubt I will ever open it again. I can smell the irritating menus on it from here. It is just another tool to try to use the Mii and it is wholly unnecessary.

I would like to see them treat online connectivity like they do StreetPass functionality. If they can make me as enthusiastic about online connectivity as I am about StreetPass I would be ecstatic. Simple, fun, easy to use, and it actually affects my game and gives me social interaction. Learn lessons from yourself Nintendo.

One day you are going to get it together and I just can not wait for that day.

Hang in There

-Chemystery

This week has been a bit sporadic in gaming for me. I typically try to follow a "two games at a time" rule but I broke that this week. I was all over the place but I had a good time with it.

The thing I played the most was the Bravely Default demo for the 3DS. I went from excited about this game to ecstatic. Bravely Default is mechanically deep in the best way. There are 24 different jobs to class your characters as and you can combine skills and passive abilities from all jobs.

Now that is standard affair but the combat is where the game shines. Bravely Default uses random encounters but you can't just get by mashing the A button here. Combat runs off of the Brave/Default system. When your characters Brave, they spend future turns to do extra actions this turn. When they Default, they earn an extra turn to use later and they gain a boost in defense. It is a genius way to use risk and reward in combat. You can go all out on the first turn and spend the next three waiting, or play defensively to build an amazing offense. The demo is free, if you enjoy RPGs please treat yourself and try this game.

I also played a large amount of Papers, Please on Steam. I love studying the cold war so this game really appealed to me. The game is inherently dark, it can really make you feel oppressed and bad about the decisions you make.You play a bureaucrat watching the border between two formerly warring countries. Your country is communist and you get paid for the amount of people you admit into your country and penalized for ones you allow without the proper papers.

Life is a constant struggle to keep your family alive with your meager wages and often you find yourself a cog in plans you don't control. I played the game as the perfect citizen. I refused all the bribes I could and tried to follow the law to the letter, even if it meant turning away refugees to certain death. You will not feel good after playing but you will be entertained.

I also continued playing my two "main" games. .Hack Infection and Final Fantasy VI, but not much happened. Hopefully I can give you a bigger report on them next week.

Take it easy,

-Chemystery

I just put the cap on The Legend of Zelda a Link Between Worlds and Cubivore. Both were great games in their own right and I highly recommend both if you have the chance to play them. Just don't expect them to be similar in anyway.

Since I have a big ole hole in my heart with my console game and handheld game of choice beaten I need to find a new pair. .Hack Infection and Final Fantasy VI have been chosen to fill that hole. .Hack Infection will be played on its original system the PS2 and FF VI will be played on the GBA.

I'm about an hour and a half into .Hack which isn't even enough to say I'm through the tutorial. First impressions though were the following. Having a desktop in the game where you can read (fake) forums is an awesome way to convey story and game tips, although I can't imagine another game it would work for. Also, this game looks like hot garbage. Animations are repetitive and clunky and textures look like they were slapped together in MS Paint. I've played enough older games though that graphics don't bother me too much, but if its an issue for you, stay away. The other thing that is bothering me about the game is the nomenclature for it. Usually I can follow the spell patterns in games (cure, cura, curaga or dia and media) but this game is much harder to get a read on. They don't even have spells. Everything is an "ability" or "skill". It's bothersome now but I'm sure given enough time I'll move past it.

Final Fantasy VI is a game that I had started a long time but never finished. I have a very nasty habit of starting games and never finishing them. It stems from my collector mindset and wanting to sample everything out there. I recall stopping play around the time your group splits up and...somebody goes on a rafting adventure? The first half an hour will definitely be me trying to figure out where I was and what I was doing. The game is just as great as you have heard though. I have beaten Final Fantasy 1-5 and 13 and so far 6 is shaping up to be in the top 3. It looks amazing, I never knew sprites could look so great and the titular characters are well written and a blast to use. I can't wait to see all 14 characters to play as!

Just to close things up a friendly reminder, Bravely Default demo is up. Activities you do will unlock things in the full game and the story in the demo can be found no where else. It's fun and not that large of download so treat yourself and try it out. I'll write more on it when I have had my fill. Enjoy your games!

Yesterday I went out into the fray of returns and holiday giftcards to spend a little of my Christmas money on a game. I went to a used game store here called The Exchange as I had received an extra copy of a game as a gift that I wanted to sell. I browsed the selection and ended up picking out Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning with a really nice hardcover strategy guide. As I checked out I saw it.

Under the glass case of the front counter was a special edition Final Fantasy II Japanese Wonderswan. It was still sealed in a box and the graphics on it looked so crisp. It had a price of 50$ and I so badly wanted to pick it up. Final Fantasy is my favorite series and I knew I'd never see something like that again.

I didn't do it though. Despite knowing that it would be a crown jewel in my collection I let it go. I'm at the point where I need money for other obligations and not for things to sit on my shelf. I wasn't upset though, It was great just knowing that something like that is around here in the middle of suburbia.

What's the biggest you regret you have from a collection point of view? Or more positively whats your crown jewel in the collection?

After finishing my finals I just wanted a game to veg out on. It so happened that fate smiled upon me and sent me an email saying that Humble Bundle was selling Gone Home for 5$. I took them up on the deal, installed it, and went to town. There are spoilers below.

I had heard about Gone Home before but only in small snippets and whispered conversations. I was under the impression that the game was sort of horror-esque. For those of you who have played the game, imagine my surprise after playing it. I fell for the red herring hard, horror was bait at the beginning that gives way to something way more interesting. Every corner I expected a ghost to jump out or something terrifying. Normally I'd be frustrated that a game didn't deliver what I expected but here, I didn't find that. I'd like to think it was because I understood that I wasn't sure what the game was about but actually I think I was just pleasantly surprised with the story. The pacing was great, giving me just the right amount to keep going. It wasn't hard by any means but I felt clever when I found a secret note tucked away. I couldn't help but pick up every item just to make sure hidden messages weren't written on them though. I was worried the game was going to be an indie cliche about sexuality after a while but I didn't get that vibe from it. It was just a cute story that takes you back to the 90's, a time many of us are nostalgic for lately. I can't wait to let my girlfriend play it and see what she thinks. If you haven't tried it give it a play, it's a really sincere story that is well put together. It's not for everyone but for those that are in the mood for it, it will touch you.

I am still moving my way through Fire Emblem Awakening. Its a tough grind though. I cannot seem to get through missions without doing a ton of grinding. Its getting especially annoying because I usually only fail when I get to the generals at the end. Walhart does 43 damage x2! What am I supposed to do about that, die that's what.

Once I get home I'm going to set up my gamecube and start into Cubivore. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

So I'll start off by apologizing to the community for the poorly chosen title of my last blog. I didn't mean to make it click bait, I was just trying to use a title similar to a Paul Giamatti indie movie "The Hawk Is Dying".

That being said I'm back at school and my girlfriend had brought me a little present from back home. While she was with her family her dad found out that I am an avid gamer. He decided to go a little overboard and got me a very generous Christmas gift. Knowing that my favorite genre is RPGs he got me a pack of games. Cubivoire (Gamecube), Digital Devil Saga I & II (Sealed Ps2), and .Hack//Infection (Ps2). I was thrilled, I've been looking for Cubivoire for years and never found it, I've never tried Digital Devil Saga before but I love Shin Megami Tensei games, and I already had the .Hack game, but I will resell it and put the money towards one of the other ones in the series. Probably Quarantine since it costs 85$ here.

I'm still trucking through Fire Emblem. I chose to reclass Frederick as a general so that is working pretty well. I think a couple of missions in to the new continent. I don't want to say too much and spoil the game for anyone who hasn't played. I also started playing The Witcher Enhanced Edition. It runs alright on my laptop and that universe is really deep and interesting. I need to sit down and see if I can track down any of the short stories for the universe. Although I enjoy the game it does have that old PC game feel to it. The combat is clunky, the animations look old, and it seems overly complex. I went into it expecting these things so I'm fine with it but if you don't like the older feel, I'd stay away. I'm waiting for the game to really open up and the difficulty to skyrocket. I'm sure I'll have to google some help eventually. I also like what they do with choices. Does anyone know if the choices hold up for the rest of the game or into Witcher 2?

That's all for now. A lot less gaming will be happening with finals approaching.

Unfortunately over break I discovered that my original Teal 3DS is starting to go. The right trigger isn't functioning properly anymore. It works about 20% of the time I hit it. It makes playing Monster Hunter Tri and Ocarina of Time since it's the block button. I'm pretty let down, I'll have to ask for a 3DS XL for Christmas now.

Despite that setback I have still been pursuing my Fire Emblem Awakening Campaign. I just landed on the other continent and things are finally starting to go more smoothly for me. Most of my units are second tier now and they are getting pretty high in level. Frederick is almost at max level so I'll have to Second Seal him soon just not sure what's the best way for abilities and stats. I'll look into it but if someone wants to tell me that'd be great too.

The steam autumn sale is going on if you haven't seen it. I bought Brave New World for 50% off. I played a real short match (I lost) but I can already tell that it totally reworks the game. It's Almost unrecognizable. New units, New policy trees, and new mechanics in general. Mainly I bemoan the fact that getting to my adviser counsel is harder than it was before. That military advice is imperative, I love knowing how strong other empires are compared to me.

Go check out the sale if you haven't. Happy Gaming.

I have the week off from school so gaming is something I have plenty of time for now. I've been working hard to get through Fire Emblem Awakening. Its a really great game but playing on classical difficulty will definitely slow you down. If a character dies during a story quest I usually keep going but if its during a random encounter I reset. Let me just say that I have lost A LOT of characters. So many that I think I might give the game a second play through. I enjoy seeing the conversation pieces as relationships grow so I really want to know what happens with the characters that I missed.

Civilization V has been a game of choice too. However I do not have the Brave New World expansion yet so its just been Gods and Kings for me. I finally won a match as Napoleon. All it took was having an entire continent to myself! I was so far ahead in every regard it stopped being a game after the renaissance era.

It should be a good week for gaming.