Still around, still playing games. Still trying to finish Phantasy Star Portable and Harutoki 4. I’m playing them in turns, so it’s delaying the completion of either one. Since I’m determined not to start anything new until I finish one of those, I’m going to be out of circulation for a little longer. After I finish them, I want to play Saiyuki, and then Grand Knights History. I was hoping the latter would have come out in English by now, but it’s been delayed till who knows when, so I’m just gonna go ahead and do my own thing.
you seem depressed =(, Are you all right?
Do I really? I’m totally fine. I’ve fallen prey to the “sunk cost” fallacy again: even though I’m not having fun, I’ve poured so much time into Harutoki that I don’t want to stop. It’s very frustrating.
Maybe you pour so many hours into gaming and its finally gotten into you, do you have any other hobbies? painting perhaps?, i can say that you like to read, and i like to read what you write,
but something that gives you a break… somehow..
Hmm. It’s a possibility. But I think I’ve spent more time doing other things like reading, writing, listening to music and watching TV than gaming this month. I think I just hit a patch of bad games and I’m too stubborn to give them up. If I start fresh new games and I still don’t feel like playing, then I’ll admit there’s a problem.
i hate when playing feels like homework, i too had a hard time finishing some games, giving the extra effort, the last playing session.
You must see my backlog it’s like 100 games of all genres, i’ve finished like 15 of them. i had tons of RPG’s on PS2 waiting waiting in line. i bought Persona 4 when it was released and haven’t touched it yet, aside the first dungeon. i think i just beated Persona 3 with 175 hours and the last sessions were marathonic of 8 hours straight, (mostly doing fusions, and searching those stupid gold hands). so persona 4 just came with more of the same.
Also had this Dragon Quest 8,a Tales game or two, Xenosaga III, Shadow Hearts, suioden IV, the extra dungeon in Star Ocean 3 (i finished this one of pure stubbornes too), Radiata Stories,some random stuff i dont remember, Kingdom hearts 1 and 2 (i hated those), that Final fantasy XII has benn in my backlog for 6 years, i just cant get into it, Phantasy Star Universe too,… i also had some action games and adventure stuff, anything that its not sports or racing games i like =).
with Next gen stuff is the same, i have like 40 PS3 games, and have finished like 5, i found myself playing more NES and SuperNES vintage that new gen stuff…
i just don’t know where to start :(, nor have time for playing consoles, i had a DS, but my kid broke it =(, luckily i just managed to beat the Phoenix Right Trilogy and Apollo, when the DS screen died on me while playing Miles Edgeworth, mehh it wasn’t that good.
Long Story short, i play a lot but dont acomplish anything and i always had these feeling that i’m wasting my time, its very rare that a game motivates me to finish it and enjoy the ride.. las one i think was that phoenix Wright game.
Whoa, that’s quite the backlog. I’ve got a backlog as well, but since I don’t have a PS3 or a 360 (I sort of have a Wii, but it’s complicated), it’s manageable. A lot of your games are on my backlog as well. I’d say:
1. Not playing P4 right after P3 is the right decision. I jumped straight into 4 after 3 and not only does 4 not hold a candle to 3 but it really is more of the same, with a worse story and even more cliched characters
2. DQ8 is like Phantasy Star IV, my brother has gone on about it for so long that I feel like I’ve played it already, even though I haven’t. And it was my game he played, on my PS2! I might try it I’m done with DQ6 and 7.
3. I’ve played Xenosaga I-III and Shadow Hearts 1. Couldn’t get into the Shadow Hearts, but I enjoyed XS 1 and 2. They just built up such a grand, mysterious story that they couldn’t live up to their own hype, and III was an empty, disappointing conclusion. Fun battles though.
4. Suikoden IV, Star Ocean 3 (if that’s the one with Fayt, I’ve played about an hour), Radiata Stories and Kingdom Hearts I haven’t tried. Haven’t wanted to try any of the KH games either. They sound hard and frustrating and I don’t care much for Disney. I’m vaguely interested in Suikoden IV and V and Radiata Stories though.
5. Final Fantasy XII. Meh. I had a moderate amount of fun with it, and I liked the atmosphere, but the plot and story progression were both really weak (basically run around the wilderness for 90 hours) and when the game was over I felt hollow. Don’t force yourself to play it.
Heh, “don’t force yourself to play it.” I should take my own advice. Maybe we’re just growing out of video games. When I think about it, most of my gamer friends in high school and college either don’t play games at all now or just play one or two a year. I don’t want to get there, but…
Regarding your DS, if it’s just the screen that’s broken it’s rather easy to fix. I just switched my touch screen for a new one, since I had no screen protection on the old one and my son played a lot on it.. ;> I got the screen (5 Euro) via amazon and the tri wing screwdriver (1 Euro) as well.. there’s lots of youtube tutorials and it’s not to hard to do. 🙂
Alternatively – Nintendo is pretty nice about repair prices – at least in Europe, but I bet it doesn’t cost much more in the US as well – you should check out the official page for the prices, I remember that changing the screens was about 20 Euro over here and getting a brand new one if yours is completely broken is 60 Euro – those are the prices if you no longer have warranty on the system, otherwise it’s free of course. 🙂
Glad to hear!, the hinge is broken and it slowly cut the screen wire until it died, i dunno if it can be fixed.
anyways, i’ll try to dig into that on internet, sellers here in Mexico are hesitant to help unless i bought the entire case for $60 US
Now that i think of it, i must be the depressed one xD
Sounds like you could use a break from gaming. You could use that time to weed out the game you REALLY want to play from those you just feel obliged to play.
Funny thing with suikoden i’ve played and loved the first one in 1996, when i got the second one i thought it was exactly the same game, with the same graphics and found it very boring, i quit early on and give it away. Both 3 and 4 i bought cuz they were like 5 bucks each, but i never played those…yet.
Another one i liked, was SMT Nocturne, i liked the athmosphere and never really got tired of grinding, i even do the Labyrinth of Amala.
My next logical step was to buy Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, but how boring was that game. never finished even the first game. luckily i sold them at a good price.
next was Raidou vs soulles army, a decent game.
And yes Star Ocean 3 was the one with Fayt (called Liraman like all main characters i play with)
It never ever gets interesting, really, 5 minutes into the game and you get tossed into an undeveloped planet in wich you cannot interfere with the prehistoric inhabitants, 30 hours later ,nothing has happened and you still strugle if its ok or not to yell your big secret, I’M FOR THE FUTURE!!!!! because the Space police may arrest you or summthing… another 30 hours still nothing happened, youre still in the same planet, i dont see an star ocean full of planets anywhere.
i’ll spoil it for you, somehow you and your party reach the ultimate evil being, the mastermind behind all those struggles between medieval kingdoms and alien technology, you must cross the portal to reach the ultradimension beyond were the Kreator lives, you and your party heroicly pat your backs, give some hugs, wish themselves luck , and jumps into the interdimensional portal to fight the final boss… What NEXT WHAT WHAT!?!?!
Most people said that this is the OMG BEST PLOT TWIST EVAHHHH!!!!, i find it stupid and annotying as hell…
Turns out that after the interdimensional portal you came out of a TV screen and a kid was scared cuz he was playing his new videogame and you just came out the screen.. To reality!. everything you has been done all the way, was a videogame and there is no rush for anything you’re just a character for agame within a game. Oh the irony, so you talk to some people, found out that it was a popular game, came to meet the programmers , they joke about the war between kingdoms they’ve programmed in the game..
so… what to do next, go for the creator of the game and kill him, f course. after all this shit i’ve been swallowing its the most rational thing to do. The End
i also thought on going out and kill some people after playing this.
Haha, I had the “amazing plot twist” spoiled for me even before I picked the game up, so I knew what I was getting into. I just couldn’t get the hang of the battle system, and I quit after wandering around that prehistoric planet for a while.
I liked Nocturne and DDS 1. DDS2 was bad. Raidou, you know how I am with action games. I’d rather get someone to play it for me to watch. I haven’t played Suikoden 2 and 4, but I can tell you for sure that 3 is a waste of time. I hear 5 is good though. I’m hoping to find it at a decent price someday.
I feel kinda bad now, since I recommended Harutoki 4 to you. ^^;;
I found it to have just the right amount of battles and story for my taste, but then again, I enjoy reading a lot (tho I’m not too fond of pure visual novels – I need at least a little gameplay.) so having a lot to read in Harutoki is just right for me. ;>
I’m currently giving Hexyz Force a go and since I had held my expectation very low after reading multiple reviews by people who where rather disappointed in the game and I have to admit, I’m enjoying it more than I expected, but it definitely does have it’s flaws. I even kinda like the female heroine even tho she is somewhat whiny. :>
You gave your honest opinion on a game you really liked. There’s nothing to feel bad about. I’m slowly coming to the realization that maybe I’m not actually an otome game fan. More likely I’m a fan of certain games that just happened to have been otome games (TMGS, first three Angeliques) rather than a lover of the genre as a whole.
I’ve gotta admit that I get your point very much as well tho, as I am VERY picky about otome games… or most game genres in general. I really enjoyed around 10% of the otome games I played and most of them were stat-raisers as well. Most otome games (or Japanese games in general) suffer from a weak hero/ine, so I find most protagonists in Japanese games distressing enough to not like the game as a whole. While most otome games bore the hell out of me, I found games like Heart no Kuni no Alice not boring at all even tho there wasn’t much gameplay. The characters and story were interesting enough to keep my interest the whole time. I really want to play Steins;Gate, since I liked Chaos;Head and heard S;G is even more awesome story and character-wise and that game also has almost no gameplay (and I believe not even different endings? Not too sure about that tho) but I’m very sure I will enjoy it a lot.
I’ve got to be in the mood for that tho and right now I’m more pleased with playing something less heavy on story, since I’m already watching so many TV series that require me to pay attention. So right now all my gaming time goes into Hexyz Force, No Heroes Allowed, Katamari and if I ever feel like picking it up again, Fate/Extra. I also pre-ordered Ciel no Surge, since I’m pretty curious about the game and I want that special edition PS Vita sticker thingy.. Hopefully I’ll have a few of the other games finished before it arrives sometime in May.. *_*
Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate of course aren’t otome games, but visual novel games directed at no specific gender (I’d say, tho there’s probably a lot more male fans).
My point just is… visual novel games are like voiced (in most cases) picture books to me, so if the story is crap of course the game is gonna suck, just like books with crappy stories suck. There’s just a lot of crap titles getting released all the time, so it’s hard to find real good otome games, unless the stupid story is accompanied by interesting and strategic game play (like TMGS, the stories around the characters weren’t really anything special and interesting, even if the character was very likeable, it was still a boring story). And while I enjoyed those games more often than the ones with just story to read, I wouldn’t exactly praise the stat-raisers for their awesome story either.. ^^;
Well yeah, I don’t play such games for the story. I don’t think the early Angelique even had much of a story except “Build the world.” It’s 90% about the characters for me. That’s probably why I managed to finish Wand of Fortune once but I’m struggling to do the same to Harutoki, even though the latter has significantly more gameplay and story.
Ciel no Surge waaaant. Everything else, do not waaant.
1. In theory I know Quinrose make good otome games, but Arabians Lost turned me off them pretty completely.
2. Don’t like Steins;Gate, don’t like Chaos;Head.
3. I watched all of Fate Stay/Night, but it wasn’t enough to draw me into the series world. I still don’t get what all the fuss is about there.
4. Hexyz Force, I was planning to go back later and do Cecilia’s route, but with the passing of time I realize I don’t care for it that much. On the fence about that one.
5. No Heroes Allowed. Never even heard of it. Is it somehow related to No More Heroes?
6. Played Katamari Damacy on the PS2. It was fun for all about 10 minutes then I lost interest.
Well, I like mindfu–err blowing sci-fi stuff, so Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head cater very much to my taste, especially S;G, time-travel rocks. ;>
I don’t get the fuss about the Fate universe either – it’s a nice idea, but that’s about it. It’s not that awesome and I didn’t like the anime and the game started to get boring after the prologue when I was no longer playing as Rin but instead that stupid boy, I really liked the prologue tho, Rin & Archer were awesome together.. 8) I only got Fate/Extra since it sounded interesting, you can play a girl and get to make choices in the game. But it’s not really that exciting and the battles are annoying. Too much grinding. Bleh. I had someone put some cheats on my savefile so I no longer have to do massive grinding, that made the game more bearable. But Hexyz Force is more fun right now. I think I’ll play both sides, I had a hard time deciding with which to start, but the majority of players said Cecilia’s first makes more sense and that her side is kinda boring if you already know everything from Levant’s side, so I decided to go with her side first. I heard there’s some romance in both sides, but Cecilia’s boyfriend to be is boring and way too young. I was hoping for the other dude (Ignus, I think?) to be her sweetheart, but meh. I’m enjoying the game anyways. It’s mostly easy, but can be challenging at times, grinding isn’t too much of a hassle and Force Eaters give nice rewards after defeating them.. 8)
No Heroes Allowed is the third game of the What Did I Do To Deserve This My Lord series for PSP.. dungeon-defense game thingy.. you probably have heard of that before. ^^
I really love Katamari.. XD played through both PS2 games multiple times but the Vita version is a bit dull and short. But oh well, definitely good enough to justify the $25 I paid. I just love that game’s quirkyness.. XD
And I will take the risk of maybe recommending another game to you that you end up not liking at all, but you should take a look at Quinrose’s other games – they have lots of otome games with likeable characters, but stay away from Crimson Empire. ^^; I’d recommend the Alice games, but maybe you should best look at their homepage and all their recent releases, they did a lot of psp games lately and maybe one of them caters to your tastes. I only played their PC games, but I believe Crimson & Arabian’s are the only ones with any game play.
Yes, I probably should have started with Cecilia’s Tale too. Lots of things on Levant’s path didn’t make any sense at all. There’s romance there, but it’s… nah, not really romantic. They’re already dating before the game starts anyway.
Will you be playing Littlewitch Parfait for the PSP?
It looks like an Atelier clone but I can’t find any information on the PSP version (the PC version got like 4.5 stars on Amazon, but PSP is supposed to be a remake). You seem to play a lot of the series (+ Nora’s Time Studio)
I’d never even heard of it till now. I read the description, and it sounds a little closer to Recettear or Lemuore no Renkinjutsushi than to the Atelier series, which still makes it awesome. Normally I’d be all over it by now, but for $72.90? Hnnn… And I’m trying to cut down on piracy. If I can get the PC version for cheap, I’ll play it.
EDIT: Just watched the first few minutes of the game on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cv8mgm63_U&feature=relmfu) I see where the Atelier comparisons are coming from. Parfait’s lines in town and when foraging are lifted straight from the Atelier games. The exact same phrases with the exact same intonation. And the world map looks a lot like the Sarlburg world map.