kariyanine

As I sat waiting for my daughters’ to finish their dance lesson this morning I was sitting playing a copy of Final Fantasy IX on my PSP Go. Something struck me as odd about the situation, while I was playing what I would argue is the best of the PSOne era Final Fantasy titles, I was also doing something I find tedious and boring when I sit at home to play games on my television. That something of course was level grinding.

Level grinding has been a core piece of the JRPG puzzle for me since I began playing them back on the Nintendo Entertainment System with the likes of Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. There always came a point where I just could not move forward without grinding out a few levels and upping my character stats. Honestly it was never something I gave much thought to, it was part of the game and how it was played.

Somewhere along the line though things changed. My best recollection of where it changed for me was around Final Fantasy X. While I do remember having to do some grinding in that game, it seemed nowhere near the level of excess I had to endure in the past. It was more streamlined and delivered more on the promise of cinematic gaming than anything had before it but in doing so it also diminished my desire to spend half my time with a game grinding out levels.

The way I play games has changed. Games like Mass Effect 2 are more appealing to me now than something like Final Fantasy XIII. Some of that just comes with my taste in storytelling having matured but a lot of it comes from the way the games themselves are designed and how I want to spend my time when I am playing on my couch.

Of course this all begs the question of why do I have no problem grinding out levels while I play my PSP but would rather jab my eyes out with hot pokers before playing a like-styled game on my PS3? Personally I think the answer is quite obvious. Level grinding is throw away time and while I sit and wait, I am doing nothing more than letting that time slip away so why not do a little bit of level grinding to make it easier for me to progress the story later on. It was a nice realization to come to and one that has great implications on future Japanese RPGs designed in the classic style, at least for me.

A lot of the gaming community has vocally admonished JRPGs for their reluctance to evolve from what they were. I do not need them to evolve into something different, I just need them to shift where they are trying to target me. Stop trying to get my 360 or PS3 purchases, get me on the handheld and I think we might all be able to coexist peacefully. At least I know I will.

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ALL NEW: The Perfectly Sane Show: Volume 2 – Episode 22 – get it at Vagary.tv or iTunes and The Movie Dudes – Episode 1 at Vagary.tv.

Hit up my friends Game Over and TeaBagRadio.

Coming Tomorrow: Week in Movies #2
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Currently Playing: Final Fantasy IX (PSOne on PSPGo)
Currently Listening To: Alter Bridge’s AB III
Currently Reading: Gears of War: Anvil Gate by Karen Traviss
Currently Anticipating: Little Big Planet 2
Halo Rank: Captain Grade 3
Bad Comapany 2 Rank: 11
CoD: Black Ops Rank: 20

My Miranda died.  I still mourn her loss.  As for the rest of them, I don't much care except for maybe Tali and Garrus.

I am not a huge anime fan. The genre intrigues me, because of my animation background, but I’ve never really be enthralled but any of it. On the other hand Devil May Cry is a series I have long held a good bit of appreciation for, and yes I even liked DMC2. When I found out a DMC anime had been produced I put it on my queue, despite knowing I would probably not like it one bit.

I generally watch over my Netflix queue like a hawk, moving and shifting titles around as I see fit. Devil May Cry kept creeping towards the top of the list and I kept relegating it back down. But then I got lazy and despite seeing the warning signs I left the list fulfill its destiny and now I have the Devil May Cry anime in my possession.

I could be like a lot of Netflix customers and put the disc on top of my DVD player and wait until the mood to watch the series washes over me. Netflix would undoubtedly love this as I am what some might consider a low tier power user of the service (unlimited 3 discs at a time service with a high turnover) but I can’t sit back and let it knowingly waste my money so I watched it or more accurately am watching it as I type this post out.

There is no easy way to say this but Devil May Cry is kind of a giant turd. Dante seems like a naive sap, Trish is nowhere to be seen (two episodes in) and for some reason (which is kind of explained) Dante is playing babysitter to a young girl who also seems to be the holder of Dante’s balls. I get the fact that the strong point of the game series is not the storytelling but as ridiculous as those stories were, they were at least a blast to play through.

In this anime, there is nothing fun about it. Sure the animation itself is serviceable and the show does have the look of the games down but everything that was cool and fun about the games is gone here. I would love to say that Devil May Cry is a train wreck but it is really nothing more than boring generic anime storytelling at its worst.

Here is hoping the Syfy mini series Tin-Man is a little better (as that should arrive tomorrow).

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ALL NEW: The Perfectly Sane Show: Volume 2 – Episode 21 – get it at Vagary.tv or iTunes.

Hit up my friends Game Over and TeaBagRadio.

Coming Tomorrow: Movie Dudes Episode 1 (maybe)
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Currently Playing: Final Fantasy IX (PSOne on PSPGo)
Currently Listening To: Alter Bridge’s AB III
Currently Reading: Gears of War: Anvil Gate by Karen Traviss
Currently Anticipating: Little Big Planet 2
Halo Rank: Captain Grade 3
Bad Comapany 2 Rank: 11
CoD: Black Ops Rank: 20

Because Mario Kart is clearly better than Forza. "

  I have heard a ton of great things about Just Cause 2 from a lot of people who's opinions I respect. Still despite months of awesome praise the idea of playing Just Cause 2 just was not appealing to me. I am not the biggest fan of open world gaming and prefer a game with a tighter focus but after finally giving Red Dead Redemption a try and loving a good portion of that game, I felt it was time to give Just Cause 2 a try. Well that and the fact that Gamefly sent it to me as my next game out.

I am not going to beat around the bush, before I even started the game I envisioned I was going to hate it and I said so publicly. I was not wrong. Just Cause 2 is everything everyone said it was, a huge, beautifully realized sandbox to play around in and the mechanics themselves are actually pretty cool. But it is also a game that tries to present a narrative to drive you along and OH LORD it is awful.

I quickly voiced my complaints and was told to ignore the story and just play around in the world and blow stuff up. Unfortunately that just is not the type of gamer I am. I am not one to play in the sandbox unless there is a purpose to me being there. In the case of open world games, that purpose is generally the story progression.

I am the type of gamer that goes from mission to mission, advancing the storyline to get to the end game. Just Cause 2 has a system to its progression and I did not enjoy it at all and worse than that the story might as well not be there because it is told and performed in such a way that I wanted to slit my wrists watching it. OK, so maybe I am being a bit dramatic but I can easily state that it is one of the worst attempts at the GTA style of storytelling ever.