This ^^ sums up my feelings perfectly.

I am (almost) considering dropping the title even though I'm on year 3. I will probably finish it in small doses.... that was how I made my way through Rorona.


 More often then not abundantly obvious character flaws are inherent to provide comfortable and available room for evolution and growth. Logy on the other hand comes to the table a balanced, logical (no pun intended), grounded and capable character. He is not idealistic, over-zealous, pessimistic, a do-gooder, nor angsty.... Logy is realistic and goal oriented. Traits I find more typical of  supporting cast members. This works as a perfect foil to Escha's downright idiocy and inherent naivety.

He truly is the saving grace of this title for me and probably the only reason I am still playing to be perfectly honest.

I felt it appropriate to come back to this thread and express that after ample time now with Atelier E&L my opinion has dropped substantially.

I was sort of really singing its praise upon initial impressions but unfortunately the game is proving a let down for me.

I still stand behind most of what I noted that I liked about the game, however the problem is NOTHING seems to really improve or draw me in further. That is, the best development in the game thus far (up to year 3) for me has been the ceasing of tutorials.

It it was not for the stellar gameplay in terms of the crafting and the fact that Logy is a home-run of an MC in my book, I would really be hard pressed to find enjoyment in this title at present.

What I've come to really dislike so far is the dialogue. It all seems like useless and meaningless banter. I actually cringe when I see a "!" indicating a character event because I know it means more time wasted on dialogue that neither proves humorous, interesting or relevant.

And on that note, the lazy fast travel with noted event indicators seemed cool at first but has proven to totally suck the joy out of said events. At least when you need to "search" for character events there is a sense of "discovery". To just check a list and go to a marked local via fast travel is pretty unrewarding at this point...

friend request sent sir. I will "like" said page as soon as you confirm me as an FB buddy :)

I know exactly what you mean. I feel precisely the same about the Agarest titles (which I referenced earlier in this thread) along with (but to a lesser degree of appreciation for) the Neptunia series and a lot of idea factory/compile hearts titles.

I feel like a lot of the artists talent involved with these games far exceeds the rest of Dev teams in their respective roles. In other words, they all prove way prettier than they do enjoyable to actually play. But that is beside the point and something I already touched upon...

However, what I care to point out is that I feel it unfortunate that the artistic integrity inherent in these games gets overshadowed by the fact the content is in fact "pervy" by some peoples standards. Niche, pervy, loli or otherwise, the anime aesthetic in some of these games is downright gorgeous.

This past weekend (though I'm a bit late in the update) was awesome!!!! Terranigma (my weekend game) really is all sorts of good. Got through the initial 5 towers and moved onto chapter 2 to close the weekend.

Atelier E&L: This game is proving to be one of those titles I both hate playing but am just too hooked on to put down. Did anyone else find the assignments to be ridiculously easy? I really had high hopes for this game and it just keeps proving underwhelming by every measure for me, save the beautiful character designs and Logy himself. I am certain I will follow through and finish it but ultimately, at the start of year 3, I think I am let down a bit here. I don't expect anything epic from an atelier game but this plot is complete freakin' bore. At least Ayesha kept me interested enough with various lore and mystery to be concerned with dialogue. I actually find myself wanted to skip text in E&L just to get back to crafting...

Bastion: What can I say? I got some more cores. I re-built a wee bit more of the bastion. I had loads of fun doing it. I can't understand for the life of me why this game has yet to see a sequel or various "clones". There may not be much to Bastion, but the content that is present is damn near flawless.

Got to give Dincrests band a listen to today. I am calling it right now, out in the open, publicly. Pool of thorns will see major success someday baring some retarded unforeseen break-up. I played in a band in the past and have been involved with quite a few local rock acts but Din's band is, without a doubt, a cut above what you typically hear.

The Chromatic prediction has been made, we have a genuine rock star in our midst folks.

As I was busy abusing the hell out of my body today (again) the thought occurred to me... I haven't seen Yoda on here in quite awhile. I miss him. Good peoples he was/is. I hope he is enjoying the Lunar games he bought from me...

Thread of the year right here. Calling it now.

I see myself returning to this thread quite a bit as I've a lot to share and say on the subject. But to begin...


I must comment in agreement here. In fact EVERY time I've found myself attracted to playing the X franchise it is purely due to the art. It usually only takes a few stages for me to remember I don't care for mega man, robots, or anything (with the exception of zero). I know I will perpetually search to connect my love of the art with actually PLAYING the games. I've even fallen victim to occasionally indulging Street Fighter titles for this very same reason.

And on that note, the ultimate example of my love of art NOT coinciding with my love of the gaming experience has to be Agarest Wars.





Both the concept art, and in game styling is top notch. The gaming experience itself is anything but... I tried so hard to love this series for the art but it just didn't happen.

Now when my love of art and style is in line with my love the game itself it equates to gaming perfection for me. With that in mind, here is one of my favorite Mana illustrations.


The beauty of the Mana art to me is the result of uber-dynamic color palettes in everything from NPC's to environments coupled with an almost DarkCrystal/Hensen meets anime "mood" to the whole package.

There is a TON more I want to share and express on this subject but I'm pressed for time right now. I will return later/tomorrow and probably the next day to give this thread proper attention.

I did decide to go with Terranigma for my weekend-retro title. And I must say.... I FREAKIN' LOVE IT! Proving to me once again, that it isn't purely the nostalgia factor that makes SNES era Rpgs/ARpgs so enjoyable for me. I never once laid eyes on Terranigma during my childhood. This is my first experience with it.

I really appreciate how much the first hour of the game reminds me of the movie Legend.

Gameplay feels extremely solid for a game of its era. Certainly trumps the Mana games, which have not aged so well in terms of gameplay and controls, even though they are probably my favorites from the generation.

I was sort of fearful this was going to feel rough because I was playing Bastion on the Xbox earlier this week but that just is not the case. Gaming really hit a prime or pinnacle in the 16-bit days. As simplistic as the games were, and for as limited as the devs were at that time by hardware, some of these titles just feel great to play to this day. Plain and simple.

Maybe I'm being overtly optimistic here, but I feel like Terranigma may prove as enjoyable to me as some of all time retro-golden-age-favorites.

If I was a betting man, I'd wager you are indeed correct. In fact, I would go so far as to say, rather than potentially suffering injury it may be more like "inevitably" suffering injury should I continue.

I don't agree with or condone my behavior as of late. It is more or less a compulsive thing. A very disordered behavior certainly. I suppose you could say I am, in a sense, "telling on myself" here.

For the record though, I don't intend on keeping it up. My body hurts today. I think I out-ran myself or something...

I am terrible with keeping current with music... At present though I have been routinely listening to some semi-old Vendetta Red on a daily basis and running to the new Babymetal album. Jpop/Jrock interest comes and goes for me, but that Babymetal album kicks ass.

In other news, my dietary excursion a few weeks ago set into motion a destructive pattern as of late. I discovered I can eat foods I am intolerant and/or allergic to so long as I run insane amounts of miles directly after and burn it out of my system at warp speed.... Yesterday was 21 miles post some peanut butter and chocolate. The good news, I had NO allergic reaction save a tummy ache. The bad news...?? I think this qualifies as an eating disorder of some nature. That is, eating foods one is allergic/intolerant of and then purging via exercise.

Bastion/ Xbox controller on the fritz... halting progress.

Atelier Escha and Logy/ Life on the fritz... halting progress... slag graveyard was cool though.

Getting back to my RETRO GAMING WEEKEND!!! Yes, indeed. It needed to happen. Without scheduled time to enjoy the titles of yesteryear, I clearly can't seem to incorporate them in my gaming routine. And so I will reinstate, my highly regimented routine of playing nothing but retro games on the weekend.

To kick it off I was torn. I have wanted to play-through both Terranigma and Romancing Saga 3 for years. I think I am going to move into Terranigma first because I am really feeling something a wee-bit more action oriented.

In other news, upon joining the Raptr community due to being jealous of Blace's awesome cross-platform consolidated sig, I have been trying to get my profile up to date. I made mention of this a few days ago in the haps thread. Well, to my dismay, updating hours on Raptr happens in real time.... to add insult to injury, it seems to cap manually tracked hours for the day and disregard whatever you log beyond that. Why does this suck?? BECAUSE I SPENT MORE TIME THEN ANY MAN IN THE RIGHT MIND WOULD ADDING SIX HOUR INCREMENTS TO ALL THE GAMES IN MY LIBRARY AND IT WAS ALL FOR SQUAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I give up. Sometimes a mans gotta know when to say enough enough. I don't care if my Raptr profile accurately reflects my hours. Its enough to have a cool sig with consolidated achievements I suppose.

^^^ This...

So I noticed a fellow community members signature was a "Raptr" sig. I got curious and checked into this "Raptr".

I love how it consolidates your gaming status from across multiple platform and profiles. I DO NOT love how I have becoming obsessive about getting my profile up to speed by having to manually add games and hours to my library/profile.

I have spent far more time then I am willing to admit in the last two days getting my Raptr account to somewhat accurately reflect my gaming to date.

This is pointless. This is stupid. This is time consuming. I cannot stop. Help....

I do however want to publicly send my thanks to Blace for inadvertently turning me on to Raptr. I suddenly feel like my achievements are something to be proud of instead some arbitrary measure of some useless agenda that in fact has no real impact on anything.. I do not of course include PSN trophies in that statement, for as we all know PSN trophies are in fact an accurate measure of your self worth after all, but until now I sort of felt it was pointless to get achievements on other consoles/profiles. I now feel my gaming has a great meaning.

Expect my signature to change to the Raptr sig sometime in the year 2020 when I get it up to date.

I WON SOMETHING!!!

I never win anything by chance. If I do win something, it is generally the result of an overt amount of effort/trickery/manipulation to tip the odds in my favor...

Lately I've had a good streak though!! I won enough at the casino to pay two bills a few weeks back and now today it turns out I won a random drawing from Siliconera for Half-Minute Hero 2 on steam.

Jupiter must be in the right house in relation to sun on my astrological birth chart of something... this crap typically doesn't happen to me. I am grateful.

So I guess I am gonna FINALLY use steam. Though I know nothing of it. Is there anything in terms of steam usage I should know or be aware of??? This is exciting. I feel like I'm buying a new console...

toothpicks and glue...well.. with some time on your hands...



or lose the glue (and your sanity) with something microscopically mesmerizing...



That is ACTUALLY CARVED out of a single toothpick! Astounding I say!!!