GaGaGame Journal #5

[Prime Mover]

I've finally decided to finish up Okami. I've just gotten, and used, the shrinking mallet and reached the Emperor so I have a pretty good idea as to what comes next...

You have a LONG way to go, my friend. In fact, that's about half way, and just where the game starts getting REALLY interesting. Okami is up there with some of my favorite games, mostly due to things that happen in that section of the game.

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Bamboo Girl

Anyway, have you ever had the experience where you're at the end of the game, and you loved the game, so you want to try and do as many of the side-quests as possible, but you can't seem to get yourself to do them, so you actually put the game down? This is what's happened to me with Tales of the Abyss. I'm literally at the final boss, but I'm trying to complete the Nebilem sidequest, but she's such a fucking bitch to try and fight, I'm scared to see how hard the final boss is.

I started "Ar Tonelico". The game is shaping up to be pretty good, except that the voice acting really gets annoying in spots (battles and FMVs specifically)... the game lacks class in presentation, at least in spots, and falls into "typical anime cliche" bunk, yet the music is quite good the setting is very unique, and I think I could really get into some of the characters (Lyner, not included). Oh well, in the next few days I'll go back and beat Abyss.

[GrimReality]

FFXII - Just finished up with the Feywood and am now in Giruvegan(sp?)
My characters are all lvl 44 or 43 and the clock is just under 90 hrs. I am STILL enjoying the game , which is quite a feat after this long.  I really have no idea, nor do I really care, about whats going on in the story, but I have grown fond of the characters themselves. Basch is probably my fav.

Nan bought Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, and has been playing that a lot. She seems to be enjoying it. I'm digging the soundtrack.

[CluelessWonder]

TotA -  Found Nam Coband Isle.

[dalucifer0]

Just got out of the Blue Dragon Shrine in Lunar Legend.

[Dincrest]

I got the Yue Imasaka ending in Memories Off: Complete.    

I still want to do every girl's branch and unlock Memories Off: Pure because an entire game is a kickass easter egg.  

Memories Off... not my favorite love adventure, but I can easily see why it's a heralded classic.

[dalucifer0]

Been playing Lunar Legend a lot today.

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Fianlly got Alex to become a dragonmaster. Went to the Frontier after Ghaleon, but I had to fight this guy in his mech, and now I'm back in Vane...

[John]

Picked up a few games this week, all for the DS:

Pokemans - ~12 hours, have four badges, level 37 Psyduck.

SNK vs Capcom Cardfighters - More complicated than the NGPC version of the game, but still good, even if the story would be subpar by Yu-Gi-Oh's quality scale.

Front Mission 1st (JAP) - I love Front Mission, and luckily, all of the menus are in English.  Finished up the first mission.

Heroes of Mana (JAP) - HOW THE FUCK DO I PLAY THIS GAME?  I AM FUCKING BAFFLED!

[dalucifer0]

Just beat Lunar Legend today. I liked the game, well worth the $10 I got for it. I actually thought I beat it this morning after....

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I defeated Ghaleon in the Grindery. I was like "Yeah, I finally killed that bitch!" Alex was about to go save Luna, but she turns into Althena and Ghaleon appears by her side, then I learned that the Ghaleon I fought was a puppet.

[D-Rider]

Fuck.

After 42 hours without missing a single recruit in Suikoden V, I think I fucked up and missed out on Killey.  I thought I remembered springing him from jail, but it was that mapmaker.  When I got done with Twilight Forest and he hadn't shown up, I knew I had fucked up somewhere.  But like a dumbass, I went ahead with the story.  If I had saved just one time less yesterday, I would have had a save left from before I was done with the ruins, so I could have gone and gotten him.

I guess I'm done with this game.  I only started it again to see the best ending, and that's not a possibility anymore.  I have a copy of Trapt set to arrive tomorrow, so maybe I'll continue to dick around with the game until it gets here.

[kyuusei]

Beat the crap out of Eurydale (or whomever, you know, the big fat Medusa) in God of War II. I had to restart the game because I forgot to take my memory card with me when I went to Calgary last week. =P

[GrimReality]

FFXII - still in Giruvegan. This one of the coolest looking dungeons I've seen in a game in a long time. I love the look and feel of it. Too bad the music is so boring(again). Everyone has gained around 5-6 levels just in this dungeon. Gotta love those embroidered tippets.

[Prime Mover]

Just finished Tales of the Abyss last night.

Actually kind of a lame ending for how good the game was as a whole. It fell back on some obnoxiously overdone jRPG cliches:

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Side character: "Promise me you'll come back alive... if you don't, I'll hate you."
6 months later: character still hasn't come back
6 months later + 1 minute: main character comes back
Main Character: "I came back because I made a promise to my friends."
END

I mean, seriously, how many times do we have to go through this? I loved the game, and the characters were amazing. I think they could have done a lot better. There were so many more things I'd have liked for them to concentrate on. Anise's reconstruction of the order of Lorellie would have been wonderful to see, I was really looking forward to seeing how that was going to be handled... it wasn't. I think this game would have really worked with the "1 year later" treatment. Sometimes that really doesn't work, but for this one, it would have been great.

However, it had ONE really redeaming feature:

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Tear actually gets up the courage (well, more exactly, the writers grew a pair) to say "I love you". I'm sick and tired of the unrequited puppy-love act, where everything ends happilly, and romantic leads seem perfectly happy to act like they're just another good friend. BULLSHIT! Thankfully, the Tales team grew a pair and came out with it, FINALLY.

All in all, it doesn't diminish the fact that for a NORMAL, traditional RPG, I'll give it "RPG of the year" (That doesn't count Zelda or Okami), also making it my favorite PS2 RPG, followed closely by Final Fantasy XII, Suikoden V, and Dragon Quest VIII.

[Dincrest]

I'm mostly playing Capcom Vs. SNK Card Battle for DS.  Yeah, it's supremely monotonous, horribly repetitive, and generally a fairly lame game... but for a game that I can just play in short bursts sporadically every once in a while, it fits the bill.  Guilty pleasure again.  I actually have fun with this game even though it contains most of the elements that would make me want to smash it with a mallet.

...and the SNK female characters are still way hotter than the Capcom female characters.  Hence why I'm on the SNK path.  SNK characters are just cooler.

[John]

Neal: Apparently there's some sort of game-stopping bug the second way through the tower.  I'm none too happy, either.

[Esper_Crusader]

I'm attempting to find The Whirlpool in Okami right now...and not having much luck.  I'm starting to think that it has nothing to do with that damned whale at all and something to do with the catwalk technique. Time will tell I guess. I haven't used any kind of walkthrough crap for this game and i'm not about to start now.