11.02.12 / Japanese, Namco, Nintendo DS, Simulation game, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (6)
Tags: Dearly Stars, music game, The Idolm@ster
I wanted something with absolutely no random battles in it, and I haven’t started a new raising sim in a while so… here we are.
Dearly Stars has you playing as a wannabe idol singer who grows from a nobody into a famous id0l. I picked Hidaka Ai, the one in the middle, and I’ve currently got her up to a Rank D idol (over 100,000 fans).
The gameplay is simple enough. You have three stats, Vocal, Dance and Visual (looks), and you raise them through lessons that take the form of annoying touchscreen mini-games. Additionally you pick a song and an outfit depending on which one of the three stats is trending that week, then you carry out promotions that help you build up “memories.” After a few of these, you qualify to take part in an audition where you use those “memories” to hold the judges’ interest long enough to pass. Pass, rank up, next audition, pass rank up, etc.
I haven’t watched the Idolm@ster anime, and this is the first game I’m playing but I hear they’re all quite similar. While this isn’t quite the experience I was hoping for, I can (sort of) see what the attraction of this game would be. It’s like the anti-Princess Maker, made for people who find “regular” raising sims long, tiring and/or confusing. They just want to play with a cute girl and they already know what they want her to be. No need to mess with all those stats and jobs and lessons and multiple endings and stress and time limits and stuff like that. Just a linear story, simple mini-games and lots of anime girls to ogle. Makes sense.
It’s not really for me though. I’m going to finish it and everything, but it’s not really doing anything for me. The foregone conclusion (Ai wins “Idol Ultimate” and becomes a top star like her bitchy mother) is painful enough without adding the repetitive gameplay and the vaguely irritating story to the mix. At each stage they try to throw an obstacle in Ai’s way, but with the player at the helm and the auditions so easy to win, they just end up looking ridiculous. For example right now I have to beat an idol named Hoshii Miki in an audition. There’s no way I’m going to lose as long as I take lessons and follow the trends, but the game is acting like it’s this insurmountable obstacle that I could never overcome in a million years, blah blah blah. Pathetic.
Anyway, I’m going to finish it. Apart from being piss-easy and highly repetitive, it’s not exactly bad, and it shouldn’t take too long at the rate I’m going. After this I still won’t be ready to take on any random battles, so… hmm… I’ll probably pick up an otome game.
27.05.11 / Action RPG, Japanese, Namco, Nintendo DS, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: review, tales of the tempest
I killed the final boss and finished the game about 15 minutes ago and I’m still waiting for the usual feeling of relief to hit me. I don’t think it’s coming this time. Tales of the Tempest couldn’t even do the final battle right, that’s how useless a game it is.
Not like the battle itself was bad or anything, it was tough in its own way and I died twice (let me skip the talking scenes, dammit!) before realizing that letting Arria waste her MP on Tempest wasn’t such a bright idea. Now that I think of it, if I had taken control of her and spammed Nurse endlessly, the final battle would have been even easier. Luckily the (nameless) final boss had a pitiful amount of HP, so he went down pretty quickly and…stayed down? Huh? I was waiting with bated breath for his real transformation where he would show me his true power gained over 100 years of manipulating humans but nope. He lay there while my party gloated, “Nyaah nyaah, we beat you ‘cuz we have friends and you don’t!” Then he winked out of existence, presumably from sheer embarrassment, and that was that. Pitiful.
In some ways, playing Tales of the Tempest was a real education. I got to experience once again how the inclusion or omission of a few basic things can be enough to ruin a gaming experience. For example Tempest‘s story was weak all around, but it would have been almost passable if it didn’t contain so many cliched and predictable elements. Oh hey Caius, Lucius looks exactly like you! Wouldn’t it be funny if you two were twins separated at birth? And if the pope was your dad, wouldn’t that be funny too? Wait, WTF? That’s what really happened?! Excuse me, this calls for a song. Ahem *clears throat* A-one, a-two, a one-two-three-four:
BBBUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTTT
BBBUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTTT
BBBUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTTT
BBBUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTTT
(repeat till end of game)
I’m not even going to touch the whole speciesim thing or the whole Arria “I was a spy, but now I’m not, so you guys have to instantly forgive me for everything, because you were too stupid to notice I was suspicious from the start” twist (BBBUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTTT). And the pope and Rommy, “I’m not really evil, I was just possessed by spots. Yes, spots” thing (BBBUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTTT) doesn’t even deserve a mention.What a weak cast of characters. The only ones who get any character development are Rubia and Arria and in both cases it goes like, “I am a wishy-washy insult to all females. Oh wait, no I’m not.” *yaaawn* I wager by this time next month I’ll have forgotten all their names and faces.
I finished the game at around 15 hours, since my last save says 14:47h. I’m not kidding when I estimate at least 8 of those hours were 
spent walking or fighting. In fact, that’s probably an underestimation. Here the basic things that were missing were: a) A way to walk or run faster, or b) A means of land or air transport, or, c) A way to warp back to places you’ve already been to. All these things were missing, so most of Tales of the Tempest consists of slow, random-battle-filled crawls from one place to another. Apart from artificially inflating the game time, this also prevented me from doing most of the sidequests because most towns and cities were too far out of my way. That the few I did do had crap rewards didn’t exactly help either.
The menu was hard to figure out, which is weird because menus are the most basic of basics. The letters were frequently tiny and hard to see, and the interface was just messed up. For one thing, instead of having all your equipment options obvious at a glance, first you have to press Equipment, which gives you the Equipment/Title options, then you can go to Weapons/Armor/Accessories. Was there really no way they make all those options display at once? It’s just so unwieldy.
So, crap story, crap characters, crap world map, crap movement, crap menus, crap game. Was there anything good about it? The battle system was okay, I guess. Tales series fans must find it pathetically easy, though. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’m bad at action RPGs, and even I made it all the way to the final boss without dying even once (which he quickly corrected). And I did it just by mashing A, B and the directional buttons. I almost never blocked, and I certainly never figured out how to use 奥義s and 必殺技s. So it’s all right for newbies, but probably a slap in the face for any veteran Tales player. Unless they’re all that easy, in which case, bring them on!
On top of that, being able to customize your weapon was helpful for fighting certain enemies, and it was nice of them to add a cooking option. One that I almost never used because I never needed to, but it’s the thought that counts. And it was nice of them to keep it short. When a game sucks this much, keeping it short is like a mercy-killing, ending things quickly instead of prolonging the suffering unnecessarily. Thanks to this solitary act of kindness, I am now free to explore other games, which I will proceed to do with gusto. Adieu, Tales of the Tempest.
22.05.11 / Action RPG, Japanese, Namco, Nintendo DS, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (2)
Tags: review, tales of the tempest
Tales of the Tempest is one of those mediocre games I find it difficult to write about. This is my first real attempt at a Tales game (apart from a few hours of Tales of Symphonia long ago), so it’s not like I had any previous standards or super-high expectations. I just wanted to know what all the fuss was about.
After 9:07 hours of play, I still don’t know. I just got to Laymon city, for anyone who knows the game. The hero Caius is level 24, everyone else is 23 or 22. The game is so dull. So little has happened in all that time. The beginning was packed with events for the first hour or so, after that I’ve just been walking along through huge fields and forests and deserts fighting tons and tons of thieves and monsters. I reckon at least 6 of those 9 hours have been spent either fighting or walking.
The remaining 3 hours devoted to story progression have been disappointingly ho-hum. Caius’ adopted dad gets captured for being a Lycanth (beastman) and Rubia’s parents are killed by the same people, so they set out on a rescue/revenge adventure. Eventually they find out the always-evil Church is capturing Lycanth because they’re after special red stones, some of which Caius just happens to possess. So now they’re half looking for the truth, half on the run from the church. That’s how far I’ve gotten and if the story is going to pick up, now would be a good time to do so.
If the battle system wants to pick up, now would be a good time as well. In general I kind of like it, in that it’s simple enough even for someone like me to be able to play. I haven’t been Game Over’ed even once! It’s so easy, just mash A repeatedly, occasionally push B and a direction to unleash set attacks. Move back and use an item if your HP/TP gets low, otherwise bash away until enemies are dead. There are three lines of battle that you can move back and forth between, which lets you target different enemies or escape if you find yourself being ganged up on. There are also things like ultimate attacks and weapon-strengthening options, which I have been half-assing because I don’t really get them.
I think it’s a feature of Tales games in general that you can only control one person in battle. I remember Symphonia being like that, at 
least. In this game Caius does the most consistent damage so I stick with him. Your other party members are close to useless. Even if you have their AI set to “protect life” your healers will still heal you only when they feel like it. Meanwhile your attackers will hit the enemy a few times, then run to other side of the screen, then run back and hit them a few times, then run away again… none of which helps them stay alive longer or helps the battle to end faster. So I’d like the battle system to make my ally AI not so horrible and my healers not so stingy with their MP. I’m going to experiment with a few more strategy options and see if that helps any.
The encounter rate is pretty high, but there are items that can fix that. I’m just saving them for the final dungeon which is sure to suck, so I have only myself to blame for that.
All the other aspects of the game have been meh-to-bad so far. The music is ordinary, though I do like the opening thing. The characters are mostly inoffensive, but not particularly likeable. Caius and Rubia feel particularly childish, but this isn’t exactly a bad thing. Tilkis and Albert, why do you guys look so girly? If you have issues, I’ll have you know I’m a very open-minded gamer, wink wink. Forest and Arria, were obviously thrown into the game because it needed more playable characters. They have no real reason for being there, but they don’t get on my nerves either, so they can stick around.
The bad guys are awful. Albert, “I am evil and ambitious”, Lucius, “I am not-so-evil and conflicted,” Rommy, “I am evil and crazy” and their minions make up the bulk of the serious enemies so far. They go down like pussies in battle though, I can’t believe they ever managed to kill anyone. Bunch of worthless sissies. Gotta hope their true motives will be revealed soon because I’m not impressed by what I’ve seen so far. The writers are not trying at all.
Graphics are the meh-est of the mehs. The fields are needlessly large and extremely bland, which is doubly painful when you realize your grandma runs faster than Caius. The trees and other natural features look unnatural. You can’t pass through any forests except one, you have to run around them. You can’t scale any ridges. All the towns have the exact same architecture, just slightly bigger or slightly smaller. Most townspeople have a sickly pink skin color that’s just disturbing. Faces lack detail, even for main characters. Limbs and bodies are blocky and pixelly. Colors aren’t exactly washed out, but they aren’t vibrant either. And so on, and so forth. Again, were they trying?
It’s not a fun game, but it’s not hard to keep going either, so I guess I’ll keep going and see how it all ends. I remember reading somewhere that it’s pretty short, so maybe I’m about halfway through. This shouldn’t take too long if I keep at it. Wish me luck!
02.11.10 / Namco, PS2, RPG, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: also sprach zarathustra, xenosaga iii
Security in all the installations in this series has been bad, but I think Labyrinthos takes the cake for WORST ever in video game history. It’s a very important building handling all kind of top-secret experiments and materials, and they’re expecting an attack from the Federation at any moment! They even said there were Federation moles around, didn’t they?
So from the second we took those guards out on the first floor, every single door, lock, window, everything in the building should have been locked down tight and a non-stop flood of security should have poured in. Labyrinthos shouldn’t have keycards just lying around for people to pick up, and every elevator should be guarded tightly, especially in an emergency. And haven’t they heard of fingerprint and retina scanners? Well actually they have, because Kevin had some in his room, so why don’t they bloody use them!!!? Haven’t they heard of encryption? How can I just stroll casually up to the Vessels of Anima, enter a few commands and have full access to the system? And when I do that, they still wait till I’ve stolen 3 of them and outfitted the E.S. before having any sort of reaction to my intrusion. Ridiculous.
I was flabbergasted, all the way through the dungeon. I was expecting some sort of trap or ambush at the end, like “We saw you coming all along, now die!” ‘cos they have to have security cameras in a place like this, right? I know they do because I saw the footage, but somehow they’re incapable of tracking us on the cameras and blocking us off, or setting traps for us? Who runs this installation, a bunch of muppets? No wonder they got wiped out, with intelligence like that.
Anyway, I’m having fun finally finishing this series off. It would help if Shion wasn’t such a stubborn, whiny bitch, but that’s what the Mute button is for. What an annoying bitch.
This game needs more chaos!!
02.11.10 / Namco, PS2, RPG, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments Off
Tags: angelique special 2, digital devil saga, dragon quest 9, harvest moon, shin megami tensei, strange journey, twin villages, xenosaga iii
[Obviously an old post (3rd January 2010), now appearing here because of site crash and recovery. Happily enough I managed to play every single one of these games]
Finally finished Xenosaga III, and with it the whole series. I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay in all three games, even the undoubtedly inferior II. I also liked most of the characters, except that stubborn, idiotic, moronic Shion. People talk about how fresh it is to have a female character as the lead, but Shion only makes girls look bad, being dumb, weak-willed, dishonest, helpless, only finding meaning in and being redeemed by the males in her life (Kevin, Allen, Jin). But apart from her I enjoyed all the other characters, especially chaos. Throughout the series I was hoping he had a really unique backstory and interesting powers, but we find out everything about him in the last 30 minutes of the entire series and it’s not that interesting either, so…yeah. I learned a lot more about him from reading wikis than I ever did from the game itself. That’s the sure sign of bad writing and an overly-complicated plot.
Real life kept me from playing a lot of games last year, so I’m going to be much less ambitious in my gaming plans this year. There are only a few major games I want to finish, and then I’ll leave the rest to chance, or to whenever something I just *have* to play comes out. Here’s what I want to get done, ASAP:
1. Saga 2. I just killed Apollo, I think I have just one more boss to go.
2. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey – I’ve had it for a while but I haven’t even started it yet.
3. Harvest Moon: Twin Villages. When it comes out, I’m gonna be all over it!
4. Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2: Almost done with 1, I just went back to kill a few side-bosses and now they’re kicking my ass.
5. Angelique Special 2: Old game for PSX, but it’s been on my mind lately.
6. Dragon Quest 9: I’m a few levels into this. It’s interesting, but not especially gripping. But I’ll get to it sometime.
7. Atelier Lina: Lise and Annie were pretty much fail as far as I’m concerned, so I haven’t been in a hurry to get to this one. I wish they’d go back to the pure alchemy-centrism of the older games.
If I manage to finish just these by the end of the year, it’ll be enough for me. Yeah, I’m that busy.
