So I was sitting on the in-laws’ couch this weekend, showing my little sister-in-law’s friend Patapon.  First, I was just doing a hunting mission here, fighting the dinosaur-lookin boss there.  But then he asked me to show him the level with the castle that I just could not beat.  Well, by some weird awesomeness, I beat the level!  Surprisingly easily too.  I’m not really sure what I was doing differently, but maybe the amount of grinding I had randomly done every once in a while was enough to do it.  Maybe my technique was a little different this time.  Its been a while so I can’t really say if I played it differently than I did before.

The point is, this got me so excited that I started playing it again.  As I said before, I really really enjoy this game but had reached a stalemate.  Now that I can start moving forward again, I am excited to play it again.

Also, I started playing Jeanne D’Arc.  This game is awesome.  I haven’t played a fun strategy RPG in a while but now I have three that I need to play (Jeanne D’Arc, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, in that order).  My mind (and my computer specs) can’t really keep up with too many real-time stategy games these days, but I can still enjoy a good SRPG.  Really liking Jeanne D’Arc so far, my favorite SRPG since Vandal Hearts on PSOne!  I didn’t get into Final Fantasy Tactics Advance because I didn’t dig the kid-like story and how it was such a departure from the original PSOne game.  But since War of the Lions is a redo of the original, I should like it much more.

I decided to hold off on Siren: Blood Curse because I hadn’t played it in quite a while and I still haven’t even bought the last four episodes.  With money being as tight as it is right now, the game didn’t hook me enough to make the $15 purchase yet.  Once I can buy the last few episodes I’ll go back to it.  Also, I stopped playing Professor Layton because this was also a game that I hadn’t touched in some time.  I really like it but the gameplay is such that I kind of need to be in the mood to do some puzzles to play it.  It’s probably a game that I will pick up here and there every once in a while when I feel like being smart.  The story is a bit too much of a slow burn to keep me plowing through the puzzles unless I’m in the mood.

Really enjoying The Simpsons Game!  As a game itself, its not much different than the old Simpsons arcade game of the 90s.  That’s not really a BAD thing, that game was awesome, but the gameplay is a bit shallow compared to most games these days.  Where this game shines is in the presentation.  It really looks like you’re controlling an episode of the show.  Also, I’m not very far yet, but the characters, voice acting, humor, and all the nuances of Springfield are absolutely true to the source material.  The voices are the same cast members that do the TV show and the brilliant satire that permeates the cartoon are focused on the video game industry instead of the world around us.  The developers have clearly done their homework on the subject matter, as the video game “Cliches” you discover and subtle nods to specific games are all accurate and extremely funny.  Non-gamers can still enjoy the game but will not get near as much out of it as someone who will recognize the Grand Theft Scratchy and King of All Cosmos references.  This is The Simpsons for gamer dorks.  Very rewarding.