The NEW Game Journal

[Dice]

Atelier Ayesha - The game is surprisingly addictive for a boring cast and unrealistic plot (insofar Ayesha acting so nonchalant that her sister has been missing for years for no explainable reason??)

Can anyone answer:  Is the dialogue worth reading?  It starts really slow so I usually end up skipping it 80% of the time....  Also, I have a bit of lag, does anyone else??

Ah well, alchemy is a lot of fun anyways and the character models look better than ever~!

[Aeolus]

(I sort of wish Ys games were longer 'cause they're fun. Why did I used to hate this series? Oh well, I guess the Ys 4s were fanslated.).

I'd guess it'd have something to do with the first two games being the only real Ys games until 6 as 3 was originally the Zelda 2 of the series (if Zelda 2 was a janky piece of crap) and 4 and 5 were both made by other companies and have two separate versions apiece.

That the first two games had to be ported to practically every system ever created (I'm honestly surprised there isn't a Ys 1 & 2 port for the GAME.com yet) probably didn't help matters either.

[MeshGearFox]

if Zelda 2 was a janky piece of crap

What do you mean "if."

(TEE.
HEE.
HEE.)

(More specifically, I meant I wonder why I used to hate the Ys 6 engine games. I picked up 6 again last spring and was quite enthralled by it, despite having rather hated it when I was in highschool.

I DID like the original Ys, which is why I'm keen on picking up the remakes. Me liking bump combat is... markedly inexplicable).

[Aeolus]

if Zelda 2 was a janky piece of crap

What do you mean "if."

(TEE.
HEE.
HEE.)

Janky: I'll give you that.

Piece of Crap: No.

[MeshGearFox]

Actually my big issue with Zelda 2 was the RPG elements. Experience points don't save, and I think it would'vebeen better ifyou just found heart tanks or whatever. Beyond that I thought it was neat.

[Aeolus]

Actually my big issue with Zelda 2 was the RPG elements. Experience points don't save, and I think it would'vebeen better ifyou just found heart tanks or whatever. Beyond that I thought it was neat.

But you did find Heart Containers (and Magic Containers).

But yeah, the fact that game overs cost you your current experience total (at least it didn't drop you back down to 1-1-1 as well) and returns you all the way back to the North Palace or the start of the Grand Palace (really annoying when trucking through the Valley of Death) was a bit much.

[MeshGearFox]

But you did find Heart Containers (and Magic Containers).

That actually gets into one of the big issues I have with the RPG Castlevanias. If you get health from leveling up and from getting heart tanks, SOMETHING is redundant. In the case of Zelda 2, I... honestly thing finding hearts in the zelda games is fun and adds incentive to explore, and I would've rather had more in lieu of the leveling system.

In the case of like SotN, the combination of leveling up + heart tanks basically means it's really damn hard to ever die in that game.

(Briefly messed around with the Ys 4s. I find them rather neat, and they remind me that I want to get back to that pseudo-roguelike I was working on, where I had an interface that was really heavily aping Ys', with the huge damn interface and window borders.

Also need to get back to my Phantasy Star 2 gameplay mod and my Wizardry 8 remove-all-the-fucking-animations mod

Also need to draw more).

Oh actual gaming. Amalur - Got to... Deltonhil or whatever. Found some guy that wasn't actual dead, got a quest to kill a jungus, and another quest to retrieve some medicine. Dalgonhil is such a pretty town. I tried playing this with gamebooster on and I don't know if it helped my framerate but my system was getting really warm.

Laptop idles at like 120F. NO clue why.

[Aeolus]

But you did find Heart Containers (and Magic Containers).

That actually gets into one of the big issues I have with the RPG Castlevanias. If you get health from leveling up and from getting heart tanks, SOMETHING is redundant. In the case of Zelda 2, I... honestly thing finding hearts in the zelda games is fun and adds incentive to explore, and I would've rather had more in lieu of the leveling system.

In the case of like SotN, the combination of leveling up + heart tanks basically means it's really damn hard to ever die in that game.

I remember Circle of the Moon to be pretty punishing in terms of keeping oneself alive. But then again, I also remember that health items in that game were incredibly scarce and the low level health items did all of jack and or shit to restoring your health by the end game (and getting those was the least like pulling teeth). But then again, once you managed to get access to the good DSS combos and that sky high jump the game became piss easy anyways aside from a few sticking points (though outside of the Dragon Zombie fight they all amounted to hitting like a goddamn truck, even through the defensive DSS combos).

But yes, the other Metroidvania games were pretty much walks in the park compared to Circle of the Moon (and probably the reason why I stopped playing them after Dawn of Sorrow).

And yes, Zelda 2 needed more hidden things to find that weren't required to advanced the plot (hello Bagu and New Town of Kasuto). Although I still like the idea of leveling up only increasing defense instead of both HP and defense (although not as much as leveling magic to cost less rather than to do more damage since it means that spells can always do what they're intended to do instead of only at a certain threshold will they work and the rest of the time you're just wasting MP).

At least they're better than the Megaman ZX games were in this regard. Outside of a handful of powerups (4 health ups, 4 subtanks, 4 weapon energy ups in the second game) it was all dumb data disks and quests for e-peenCrystals and ability chips.

[MeshGearFox]

Part of the reason the Metroidvania Castlevanias were so easy, by the way, is that they required a lot of backtracking. Which isn't problematic cause it wasn't backtracky to the point of being obnoxious, and backtracking just goes hand in hand with being a metroidvania, buuuuuuut since you're fighting a ton of enemies while you do this, you basically over-level REALLY fast. This is what I really noticed was making HoD and SotN easy.

Although SotN also throws like a million god-items at you that let you insta-kill Dracudad.

I'm not sure if I really consider the ZX games to be Metroidvanias. Yeah you CAN go off and explore a little bit, but... you could do that in Zero too. Essentially they're Zero games that don't have QUITE as firm requirements for accessing new areas. The Metroidvania-esque weapon-puzzles were pretty much the same things that had been in the series since... I think Megaman 3.

(Also wasn't ZX Advent supposed to be easy? Why am I so goddamn terrible at it?)

(I need to get back to X5. The flying armor makes the second end stage really trivial, but it kind of sucks against the Wall Monster).

---edit---

Oh huh Dawn of Ys is pretty cheap on eBay, and it has a fan-translation. Hm...

Anyway, I think what I like with the bump-combat is that it's... so limited. In the sense that, like, as much as I love Soul Blazer, the goofy huge attack arc your sword gets in certain directions does kind of make stuff easy. Ys combat has a certain bullet hell SHMUP quality to it, and this is maintained even in 6/Felghana (and is precisely what's ABSENT in 5, from what I've seen).

[(Tunnels)]

I started replaying (rereading) Umineko no Naku Koro ni the other day. I had before played and read the first two episodes, and got through the 1st night in episode 3. However, I stopped at that point due to other obligations. I decided to pick Umineko back up and started back at the 1st episode and recently finished the 1st one again. It still holds up on a second playthrough, especially since I recently finished Higurashi and the music and visuals got a nice upgrade. The atmosphere and the themes of the story are still fantastic and it hasn't lost its creepy atmosphere, even though I know what was going to happen.

Some spoilerly thoughts for Episode 1:

Code:

Natsuhi can be mean at times, but I find her kind of endearing. She's picked on by Eva and gets no respect from Krauss or Jessica. I just felt sorry for her. And she looks pretty awesome with a gun. The first time I saw that I had to laugh because it was sooooo unexpected.

And the first appearance of Beatrice is still amazing, and I don't mean the portrait.

In terms of theories, since I haven't gotten to the answer arcs yet, I don't know what really happens, but I do have a few thoughts:

Code:

I believe Kinzo is the killer and may have one or two accomplices. If he does, one of them is definitely Maria. I totes believe she's the one who put the letter in the study near the end of the episode. I mean, the only evidence that he's dead was a very burnt body that bore an extra toe. Honestly, what's to say that the body did not belong to Krauss? They did mention the trait was hereditary.

Taking a break to do some homework, but I can't wait to get started and reread Episode 2, which, if I recall correctly, has an amazing climax.

[Mickeymac92]

I remember Mega Man ZX Advent was criticized in reviews for being too hard. And from my experience, it really is pretty hard. It doesn't help that several of your transformations suck.

Anyways, I've been playing Etrian Odyssey IV mostly. Got to the third land. I think I'll take a break and try some other games. I've played too much Etrian Odyssey across 3 games recently. Guess I'll go back to 3D Dot Heroes.

[MeshGearFox]

Felghana - Beat Crystal Tentacle. It was pretty hard until I remembered that I could double jump.

I am bad at games.

Also my wrists hurt.

[Aeolus]

I remember Mega Man ZX Advent was criticized in reviews for being too hard. And from my experience, it really is pretty hard. It doesn't help that several of your transformations suck.

Anyways, I've been playing Etrian Odyssey IV mostly. Got to the third land. I think I'll take a break and try some other games. I've played too much Etrian Odyssey across 3 games recently. Guess I'll go back to 3D Dot Heroes.

I wouldn't say that the forms suck since you still get the ZX form as well as all the other elemental forms from the previous game. Although you do have to start out with only Model A (not to be confused with Model a which is a completely different beast) and you wont get ZX until about two thirds into the game. But yes, all the new models in ZX:A suck (except for maybe the female's version of Model A, but even that was pretty weak).

My best guess was either that Albert is a stupidly difficult final boss even with Model ZX or that getting 100% required massive amounts of bullshit (why yes, I did pick up all those Model Energy boosters to double my ME, why do you ask? Wait, fuck! So now I have to wait twice as long to Giga Crush a boss to death since my ME meter refills by 1 pip per 2 seconds and the speed never increases to compensate!? MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!).

[GrimReality]

Starting playing Darksiders II. Death is WAY more fun to control than War. He's fast as hell, and climbs walls like a freakin' monkey.
The game is fun, with all sorts of rpg-like trappings. This is another dark Zelda like the original was, but with some great new(I think?) features. There's tons of equipment(loot) to find and play with, magic, secrets galore, and you actually get experience points for every baddie you kill.
The graphics are kind of weak compared to most top tier titles now, but I quite like the art style. Music is good so far, too.
My only real problem has been the clunky frame rate and load times. For some reason the game is played off the disk. It never installed to the HD. I wonder why that is. Anyone else play the game, and have the same issues?

[Ranadiel]

Currently playing Diablo 3 and Atelier Totori. Game scould not be more different. >.> I wasn't really interested in either of them when I started them(and just started them because I have few choices left in my backlog), but I have been pleasently surprised that both are better than I expected.