If you’re one of the three people who read this site, or if you regularly find your way here for the furry porn then you’ll need to pay attention to this.

I’m not going to be updating this site anymore.  I’ve moved all the content from this site to my other blog and all my future RPG Rewind posts will happen over there.  In a month or two I’ll let this site go bye-bye.

I’m just tired of updating Wordpress, worrying that I’ll screw something up, and trying to divide my (admittedly small) mind between two blogs.

So if you’re looking for me you’ll find me at:

disambiguation.wordpress.com

Hope to see you over there!

I’m not sure I’m ready for this.

I got a spiffy new Asus 1000HE this past week so of course I’m putting some games on it to play around with.  Well I somehow wound up installing Baldur’s Gate II and then Baldur’s Gate, along with Arcanum and Planescape: Torment.  All of them look and work wonderfully on this little thing.

So I actually started up Baldur’s Gate for the first time in years.  I have no idea if I’m going to stick with it but I just left Candlekeep and am on my way with Imoen to the Friendly Arm Inn.

I’m making no commitments at this point but I could see me enjoying this.

Digital Devil Saga is the first Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve spent much time playing.  It apparently is known for marrying the traditional SMT gameplay with a more character-centered and developed story.  Having finished it, I can easily see how it could be a gateway drug for the rest of the SMT series.

Story

What if the world you lived in wasn’t the real world?  That’s the intriguing question posed by DDS as we follow Serph and his companions through a series of unfortunate events.  They are members of a clan living in the Junkyard where it always rains, and they are forced to battle other clans for domination.  The winner gets to ascend to Nirvana, though no one really knows what that means.  As the story progresses and Serph’s group defeats the other clans we receive hints and occasional glimpses of another reality which raises more questions.  Why is there a cat around?  Why are there no children?  Why do the characters have no emotions and later why do they begin to have emotions?  Who is Sera, the mysterious girl dropped into the middle of all this?

I really liked the story in DDS.  As I was playing I kept trying to figure out what was going on and what was behind this strangeness.  The characters were also intriguing and though they were somewhat one-dimensional, this was explained as the game’s story progressed.  I do wish Serph wasn’t the stereotypical Silent Protagonist and I also found Cielo seriously annoying but otherwise I wanted to know more about these characters.

Obviously DDS is the first part of a two-part series of games.  The story will be completed (hopefully!) in the sequel so many of my questions are still unanswered.  Presumably the second game will need to spend more time developing the story as there seems like quite a bit to wrap up.

The major complaint could be that there wasn’t enough of the story.  DDS is primarily set up as a dungeon crawler so the story is typically not a prominent feature.  Going into the game I knew this and appreciated not being taken out of the game every 10 minutes with a cutscene (hello Grandia III!).  The story elements usually arrived between dungeons and always left me hooked with more questions.  Someone looking for a very plot-heavy game filled with cinematics and overflowing with emotional scenes might be disappointed.  There is a story, and it is a strong story.  It’s just not thrown in your face as much as other RPG’s.

Rating: 8.0

Gameplay

Digital Devil Saga is a difficult game.  Though the difficulty was toned down a bit from Nocturne by all accounts, DDS nevertheless presents quite a challenge.  I’m happy to say that I saw the game over screen many times.  What makes it difficult?  First, the encounter rate is set relatively high.  There were times in dungeons where I would literally take the equivalent of two or three steps and be hit by another random battle.  Second, the game relies heavily on enemies who use status attacks as well as elemental attacks that target your characters’ weaknesses.  To succeed, you need to have a phenomenal memory or else write down what monsters repel ice attacks, what ones are weak to force attacks and so on.  Third, the dungeons are long and frequently set you up with surprise encounters, dead ends and confusing layouts.  Last, there are just some encounters that will kick your ass.  Several times I had full health and was feeling cocky when I ran into an enemy that hit my party with sleep spells and then the next turn hit me with Calm Death which kills sleeping characters.  It’s the nature of the game and you adjust to it quickly.

These things would ordinarily make the game irritating but I found I didn’t mind, in part, because the battles are over so quickly.  Combat is a snappy affair, though it is definitely turn-based.  And battles not only give you experience but also Atma (skill points) which are used to level up your Mantras (skills).  This makes each battle significant as it draws you closer to that more powerful healing spell or nifty attack.

Also, I found that I had to change my playstyle to be successful at this game.  I don’t tend to buff, use items much or exploit enemy weaknesses unless I get lucky.  DDS requires you to think carefully about the game you are playing.  Let your mind wander too often, or become stubborn and try to push to the next save point without fully healing your party and the game will spank you.  But when you do play the game, paying attention to what’s in front of you, accepting what needs to be done and “going with the flow” it becomes a very addictive Zen-like experience.

The game is certainly frustrating at times, but it also goes out of its way to help you along.  You’ll almost never find a boss battle where you don’t find a save point first and a warning that “Behind this door there appears to be an evil presence.  Do you still want to go in?”  As you level up your characters will sometimes spontaneously recover HP or MP and save points are generously spaced and some will let you teleport back to various points in the dungeon.

It’s a well-designed game and obviously the system has been tweaked and honed since Nocturne.  I spent a very enjoyable 30 hours with it and there was a lot of optional content I didn’t explore.

Rating: 9.0

Presentation

Let’s start with the character and monster design of Kazuma Kaneko which is nothing short of phenomenal.  He has the ability to create characters that are stylish and otherworldly at the same time.  It suits the game perfectly and the monster design is nearly as good.  Some of the creatures are just bizarre.  I’m still not sure why Argilla’s demon form has sharp-toothed jaws on her breasts but it seems to fit with the game for some reason.

Other visuals continue the trend of being otherworldly and stylish.  While most of the locations are stark and not particularly jaw-dropping, they all maintain a cohesiveness that suits the strange game world of the Junkyard.  While other games have made my Playstation 2 work harder, DDS is no slouch and I never found myself thinking “Boy, I wish this game looked nicer.”  The framerate is solid throughout and there were no visual glitches.  Graphically, the game is very polished.

Voice acting is also particularly strong.  Withe the exception of Cielo’s annoying accent and Serph’s silence, the actors all turned in great performances.  It’s nice to see how far game production has come since Final Fantasy X’s voice acting.  Equally strong is the soundtrack by Shoji Meguro.  Several times I would pause in a particular area just to continue listening to a song.  I’d buy the soundtrack if I could find it without spending a fortune.

Rating: 9.0

Conclusion

I’m glad this is the first part of two as I have another whole game to look forward to.  I’m anxious to spend more time with Serph, Heat and Argilla, particularly after the cliffhanger ending and teaser scene after the credits of DDS.  From start to finish this has been a challenging, intriguing and lovely game.

Final score: 8.7

I just finished Digital Devil Saga 1 last night.  That was a great game.  I’ll try to get my review up in the next couple of days.

I ended up shelving Grandia III.  I still have it and I haven’t deleted my saved game but I just can’t make myself play it anymore.  And that’s a shame as I put about 18 hours into it.  It looked great but was pretty generic in most of the ways that matter to me.  Music was forgettable.  Characters were annoying.  The story was predictable.  There were too many cutscenes and they went on and on.  I may pick it back up at some point but it would really just be for completion as opposed to any investment in the story or game itself.

The one thing that kept me going was the great battle system.  I loved the battle system in Grandia 1 and initially I thought that Grandia 3 perfected it.  Aerial combos were especially fun but as the game progressed it seemed like there was a lot more fighting than I remembered in Grandia 1 and the battles themselves seemed to drag on longer than necessary.  I found myself avoiding combat, which was sad for me as I genuinely think the battle system is great but needs some tweaking.

So now I’ve moved on to a couple of different games.  I’m nearing the end of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the DS.  I like it but I keep banging my head on one of the latter battles so I may not finish it.  I also started Eternal Sonata for the 360 and love what I’ve played so far.

But my main game right now is Digital Devil Saga 1 for the PS2.  This game is tough, intelligent and lovely to look at.  The story and characters feel much more “adult” than Grandia III and I need that right now.  I’m approaching 20 hours into the game so far and really like it.  It’s the first Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve spent much time with and I have DDS2, Nocturne, Persona 2, 3 and 4 sitting on my shelf for when I’m done.

Now some odd, miscellaneous information.  According to Wordpress Stats I’ve had 2, 274 total site views since I started this current incarnation last February.  The number one search that brings people to this site is “Final Fantasy VIII” (or variations in spelling).  The fellow whiny emo-Squall fans resulted in almost 550 different views.  I’m kinda surprised by that.  Actually I’m surprised anyone but me even knows or cares about this site.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great 2009!

Since my last post I pretty much gave up on Star Ocean 2.  I had no interest in the story or the characters and it seemed like the first couple of hours were dialog after dialog.  I’ll eventually try Star Ocean 3.

So I moved on to the Playstation 2 and tried to play Tales of Legendia.  Wow that was a mistake.  Those are five hours of my life I will never get back.  I wanted to like it, and the combat system was quite fun but, again, the characters and story made me want to harm somebody.  I’m not sure if it was the singing bears or the completely irritating characters.  The protagonist had a sister who was so cutesy-smarmy that I kept wishing she’d be eaten alive by the singing bears.

Fresh from my irritation with Tales of Legendia I decided to try Grandia III.  I loved the first Grandia and hated what I played of Grandia 2 so this was a risky choice but so far I’m happy with it.  I’m about 12 hours into the game and, as always, the combat is simply awesome.  I want every RPG to have Grandia’s combat system.  Not only that, but the visuals are great for the PS2.

Downsides so far?  The story is merely okay.  The main character Yuki actually has his mother along for the early part of the journey but she’s left by the point where I’m at.  The other downside is the game is absolutely overflowing with cutscenes.  Xenosaga never seemed quite so oppressively loaded with cutscenes.  Maybe it’s because there was always something interesting happening in Xenosaga while Grandia III’s cutscenes are too long and relatively boring.

But I’m enjoying the game for the most part.  I’m far enough into it that I’m sure I’ll finish it.

For my next game I really need to play something different.  Maybe a Shin Megami Tensei game.

Still playing Star Ocean 2.  I have to admit this game has a certain charm.  The visuals are lovely and so far i like the music.  I continue to be irritated by any dialogue segments as they seem to drag on and on, complete with little teardrop thought bubbles and the ubiquitous ” . . . ”

That said, I finally figured out why I couldn’t manually move Claude during combat (changing the options is a good thing) and I picked up Celine Dion for my party so now there’s three of us and we’re heading off to Cross Cave.

I need to snap some screenshots and post them.

Now that I’ve finished Fallout 3, I’ve been messing around with Star Ocean 2 for the last week or so and have put in an hour and a half.  My initial impressions are mixed and I’m not sure I’ll stick with it.  The opening hour was quite boring with a lot of talking, a lot of ” . . . ” moments and not much to grab me.  Claude and Rena have just left the town together so I’m hoping thigs pick up a bit.

For now I’m undecided.  I have Star Ocean 3 that I’d like to play but I want to give this a fair shot first.

Oh yeah Fallout 3?  Great.  Not without it’s flaws but definitely great.

Final Fantasy XII Review

My first exposure to Final Fantasy XII, like most people, was through the demo that came with Dragon Quest 8. Did I buy Dragon Quest 8 just to get ahold of the FF12 demo?  I’ll have to plead the 5th on that. I played the demo for about 10 minutes and my first thought was “That’s different.” My second thought was “That’s really different” as it felt like an MMORPG instead of a Final Fantasy game. Once the game was released I did succumb to the initial excitement and bought it right away, played it for several hours and shelved it. It seemed like a good game but it wasn’t like the other Final Fantasy games I’d played and liked.

Then I restarted the game a little over a month ago and flew through its 62 hours in a caffeine-assisted haze. It’s very rare for me to play a game this quickly, particularly one this size. Here are my final thoughts on FF12 but if you want the short version: It’s different from other games in the series and it’s brilliant.

Story

All recent Final Fantasy games have had an interesting cast of supporting characters but ultimately focused on a single protagonist, usually with funny clothes, bad hair, a whiny personality or a tail. FF12 turns this upside down. At the start of the game we are introduced to Reks, through whom we learn the game’s basic mechanics. But just as soon as we get comfortable with Reks he’s gone and Vaan takes his place. He does have the trademark funny clothes and bad hair and looks a bit like the young lady who works down the hall from me but he’s a likeable enough guy. We spend most of the game seeing things from Vaan’s point of view but, oddly enough, he’s not the main character.

You see, the story in FF12 is much larger in scope than other games in the series. It concerns itself with politics, empires, invasions and rebellions. There are actually several similarities to Star Wars including a princess without a throne, a swashbuckling rogue and his non-human companion, villains in dark suits of armor with breathy, deep voices and a final confrontation against a Death Star-like fortress. In many respects, Vaan takes on the role of C3PO in that he is present for all the major events that take place but isn’t really the acting force that moves the plot forward. This was a bit jarring at first as I kept waiting for big revelations about Vaan and instead the game kept giving me glimpses into the inner workings of the empire and its enemies.  If anything, the main characters are Princess Ashe and Basch, a man who may or may not be guilty of regicide.

Freed from any prior expectations, the story in FF12 is quite good. I was interested in what was happening and there were several plot twists I wasn’t prepared for. The game is so huge, with so much to do (more on that later) that there were some points toward the middle of the game where I felt the plot meandered a bit too much. There were a lot of minor and major characters and it was easy to lose track of who they were and why they were important. I wish the developers had added a story summary or glossary of the important people you met and a bit of their background just to make it easier to keep on top of all the characters. I mean the Marquis Ondore was great and I appreciated seeing him at the end of the game but it had been 20-30 hours since we last met him and it took me a moment to remember who he was.

The other problem was this grand, sweeping story that was able to pause while your characters completed a dozen or more hours of sidequesting.  Once you had enough optional questing you could return to the story right where it left off.  It’s not realistic but I’m not sure how else they could handle it.

The six primary characters were great. Vaan was successful in not being a whiny douche which is notable for a Final Fantasy protagonist. Basch was very cool and had a fantastic story arc. Ashe, as the princess without a throne, was well-realized. I enjoyed watching her struggle with the question of what a person will do and won’t do for the nation they love. Balthier was far and away the most fun character. He’s Han Solo with a better voice and cooler clothes. His partner Fran was very exotic. I would have liked to know more about how they met. The only character I didn’t appreciate much was Penelo. She never seemed to have much of a role other than being Vaan’s friend. I would have liked to see her developed more but I am glad they ended the game from her perspective.

So yes, the story in FF12 is very different from the games that precede it. I think it’s a good thing and I was happy to see the storyline move in a broader, more mature direction.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Gameplay

Much has been said of Final Fantasy XII’s battle system so we’ll deal with that right off the bat. Battles are similar to MMORPG’s in that you will see the enemy as you are walking around but it will only become aggressive if you get close to it. At that point battle begins with no separate “battle screen” and no flashy battle transition. I can’t tell you how jarring this was for me at first.  I’m so used to the Final Fantasy battle screen in all its various forms.  Once battle is done you collect any loot the monster drops and you move on. Because of this, there are no random battles and you can actually avoid a lot of combat just by not getting too close to the enemies. It’s refreshingly different and made me wonder why Final Fantasy hadn’t done this before.

Hand in hand with the new combat system is the gambit system which is also completely new to the franchise. It turns the traditional turn-based battle systems from previous Final Fantasy games into a quasi-real-time strategy game. You select what you want your characters to do from the Gambit menu (i.e. If the enemy is flying then use Thundaga, If the enemy has 100% health then attack him first) and, in battle, they follow your commands. If you’re not happy with what they are doing you can select a different action, rearrange or re-do gamebits or you can turn gambits off altogether. This is similar to PC RPG’s like Baldur’s Gate or World of Warcraft where your characters have default actions they will carry out in real-time but you can step in at any point and give them specific instructions.

The downside to the gambit system? Well it does create a certain distance between you and the battles as, once you’ve set your gambits up, your characters can handle most battles quite well without you, thank you very much. At no point did I feel like I was playing Dungeon Siege (”it plays itself!”) but I can understand how some people might not like the system. Also the developers decided to slowly trickle out gambits to you so you start the game with only the most basic commands and add to them as the game progresses. It helps prevent being overwhelmed by all the options but also felt silly and restrictive.

Another change is the license system. You learn how to use weapons, cast spells, etc by purchasing licenses for them. Odd, right? If I found a great sword and didn’t have the license for it then I couldn’t use it. You get more license points by fighting battles and eventually you can specialize your characters. Vaan became a melee fighter, Balthier became a thief and shot enemies with his pistol of doom and Ashe became a mage and an archer, alternating fire attacks with arrows. It’s not a bad system and you can make any character learn any ability. Want to have three female melee fighters equipped with axes and heavy armor? You can do that.

One complaint is the necessity of stealing from enemies. You do get items from battles that you can sell (called loot) but you never seem to get enough unless you steal from enemies. As the game progresses and spells and weapons cost more and more I found I was stealing from every battle.

Final Fantasy XII is a huge game. I finished the main storyline in roughly 62 hours with only a little time spent doing sidequests. And there are a *lot* of sidequests to do. For one, there are hunts which are new to the series. These are elite or sometimes boss-level monsters that you contract to find and kill. They are completely optional but once you do dispatch a hunt you are rewarded for your services and can accept another hunt. There are several dozen hunts in the game and as you progress through them they increase in difficulty. They also open up other sidequests and reveal bits and pieces of the side-story and help to flesh out the game. Now that I’m done with the main story, I think I could reload my last save and just concentrate on hunts and sidequests and probably have over a hundred hours worth of gameplay.

One of the biggest compliments I can give to an RPG is that it is addictive and FF12 became very addictive for me. I had a clear idea what I wanted my characters to be like and watching them increase in level and ability was very compelling. Several times I’d be close to stopping for the night but wanted to keep playing until I could unlock a better black magic spell or build a long chain of enemies so I could get some really nice loot drops.

Gameplay gets a 9.0 out of 10

Presentation

Square seems able to squeeze fantastic visuals from older hardware.  From Chrono Trigger on the SNES to Final Fantasy IX on the original Playstation, Square’s designers and programmers excel at using the limited resources available to them.  As the last Final Fantasy title on the Playstation 2 I expected this to be a great-looking game and I wasn’t disappointed.

The opening CG movie is a fantastic start - breathtaking visuals and a sweeping score combined to draw me into the game.  There are several CG movies sprinkled throughout and they are all well-done.  We’re used to amazing cutscenes from Final Fantasy games and FF12 offers no surprises here.

What is surprising about Final Fantasy XII is the change in perspective.  Instead of a fixed overhead camera with mostly static backgrounds, the game has changed to a movable, behind-the-back camera.  This third-person view makes an enormous difference.  Many times, while playing previous entries, I’d wished I had the ability to look around and admire the beautiful scenery and FF12 delivers in spades.  Cities, ruins, other characters all seem more alive and realistic when you can look at them from “eye” level.  My only gripe is that you can’t change the camera rotation controls.  This would have been very easy to incorporate and its absence is inexcusable.

Also realistic are the character models.  FF12 continues in the tradition of FF8 and FF10 in giving us realistically proportioned (well, for the most part anyway) characters and they look great.  It doesn’t really need to be said but the Playstation 2 is an old beast and yet the visuals in this game are fantastic.  When held against the standard of the best-looking PS2 games, FF12 lands near the top.  Widescreen support is a nice addition and is present but apparently progressive scan was not possible.

Final Fantasy XII also is notable for the absence of long-time composer Nobuo Uematsu.  Taking his place is Hitoshi Sakimoto, who previously composed the scores to Vagrant Story, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter and Final Fantasy Tactics.  The differences are notable but Sakimoto’s score is suitably majestic and full of hooks.  I had the Rabanastre song playing in my head for a good week or two after I started the game.

After the voice-acting fiasco that was Final Fantasy X (remember this?), I was nervous about the performances here.  As it turns out there was nothing to worry about - Final Fantasy XII has the best voice-acting I’ve heard in a console RPG.  Every character could have been silent except for Balthier and I still would have loved it.  The actors turned in amazing performances that helped to root the characters in my mind as people, not just animated figures on the screen.

All other aspects of FF12’s presentation are top-notch as well.  I want to give special appreciation to the translation as it is phenomenal.  There is no Engrish to be found anywhere and the text descriptions of the creatures in the Bestiary are clever and frequently funny.

Presentation gets a 9.5 out of 10

Conclusion

The Final Fantasy games have always balanced upholding certain traditions with their ever-changing battle and character development system.  Final Fantasy XII is yet another fine entry in the series.  Is it the best Final Fantasy game?  I’m not sure about that but it certainly can stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of them.  It was an enjoyable, lengthy and compelling experience.  There’s a part of me that wants to replay the whole thing again.

Final Score: 9.0

I finished Final Fantasy XII last night in a bleary-eyed haze of butt-kicking.  It’s different for me to be so wrapped up in a game that I’d rather play than write about it, even just a little bit.

Anyway, it was an amazing game.  I’ll try to get a review up shortly.