Really Bad Roulette: August 1, 2012
By RecSpec 1 Comments
Welcome to your doom, the Really Bad Roulette. I’ve made some changes to my weekly blog about my gaming adventures. I went back to the old format, back when I was writing this at the beginning of the year. It gives me a lot more flexibility. I can add and drop things as I please, and it’s a lot more random, as it should be. I have my Inside Bet (the main game I played over the last week), Outside Bets (Other games), Random Bet(as it sounds), and Final Bet (wrap-up and future plans). I’ve been planning the shift for awhile, and it’s been a mess, but hopefully the upcoming weeks will be smoother. Thanks again to you folks reading it, I appreciate your support.
As far as this week goes, a lot of time with Analogue: A Hate Story, first game I’ve S-Ranked in a year and a half, and had fun every step of the way. Also, a ton of portable stuff. Plus I found a use for my PSP! All this and more on the Really Bad Roulette. Place your bets!
You’re sent to the remains of the space colony Mugunghwa to find out how and why everyone died. You use an in-game computer to perform various functions throughout the game, it kinda works like the command prompt on your computer. Putting in commands like enable_ai and decrypt are necessary to proceed. It’s a neat touch, and a little more familiar than dialing into a BBS like in Digital. This really comes into play close to the end of the game when a certain event happens.
Shortly after arriving you will meet the AI *Hyun-ae. Because of the colony’s damaged state, you can only communicate with her through answering binary (yes/no, agree disagree, to sum it up) questions. From there you’ll read logs ranging from an arranged marriage to the emperor to poetry from a prostitute to her client’s wife. Showing *Hyun-ae certain logs will reveal more information.
As I said earlier, the game’s art style may be offputting for some, and the game is basically reading and answering binary questions with one puzzle. But if you’re looking for a great story, which games need more of, then Analogue is definitely worth a shot. It’s one of my favorite games this year.
Live A Live
Discovered this game through a couple of Square-Enix’s compilation cds. This is a real-time(?) turn-based strategy RPG...that came out in 1994. It was way ahead of its time, and it’s a shame that it never came out in the US. There’s an English patched version out there, and I’m loving this game.
There are various differences based on how you play. In the kung-fu scenario for instance, certain events can lead to the deaths of characters. The first time I played, I was screwed because my strongest character died in an event, causing me to start over. The scenarios are short though, so it’s not devastating. A really great game so far, can’t wait to keep going.
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
Strange path with this game, I went from not caring to caring only for the TWEWY cameos to actually getting into this series again.Story aside, because...yeah. There is a ton of gameplay crammed into this game. The actual combat feels solid, especially with the environment-based moves (like spinning on a light pole or grinding on a rail) and the deck system. No MP managing, just waiting for attacks to recharge. The Dream Eaters are pretty neat, you fuse materials you find to create these creatures, and you can play with them like in Nintendogs. Collecting and evolving these could get addicting. The drop system’s strange right now, where Sora and Riku will switch when time runs out, you’re playing two stories simultaneously. It sucks switching when you’re in the middle of something, but I figure I’ll get used to it.
Did I mention this game had cameos from The World Ends With You? I could write a page and a half on how awesome it is. It’s my favorite DS game, and I was excited to see the crossover. The voice actors did great with the characters, and it’s just really awesome seeing the TWEWY cast again with remixes of Twister and Calling in the background. I had the biggest grin on my face when Sora met Neku.
Don’t take it personally babe, it just ain’t your story
Another one of Christine Love’s games, and while it didn’t quite live up to Digital or Analogue, it’s still a neat story. You’re a new teacher who has the ability to read all of your students’ social media posts on your tablet (to prevent bullying, supposedly). Because of this, you get sucked into the drama of your students, and it gets pretty weird. Yeah, you feel like a scumbag reading through your students’ messages. Especially the one student trying to get into your pants. The game does tackle a lot of issues most games wouldn’t come near, such as same-sex relationships, exposure through social media, bullying, and a lot more. The writing of the game is pretty good, which is great, because handling situations like these could turn into a disaster, but Love does a good job with it. It’s free (download here) and pretty short, I finished it in about 2-3 hours.Pokémon Pinball
I grew up with a Sega Genesis and a Game Gear, but Pok é mon Pinball drove me crazy one summer. Not quite sure which came first, my desire to get Pok é mon Pinball, or when I started to watch the show, but that was the beginning. I was 12 at the time, and I did everything I could to get the money for my lime green GBC with Pokemon Pinball.I forget how addictive that game was, I had an hour-long session out of nowhere after work one night. Even though there are only two tables. The capturing and evolution makes it pretty hard to put down. For the record, in my new game, first caught was a Farfetch’d. Blue table of course.
Without any knowledge of how the hacking landscape has changed, I looked up a method on flashing CFW onto my updated PSP, and I found out a method. The funny thing? It took twenty minutes, start to finish. From starting research to finish, mind you. No hardware tinkering necessary, just copying folders. The process has become insanely easy. My PSP is now filled with homebrew apps. If your PSP is collecting dust, and you want something to do with it. Here you go.
