Spinning my wheels in Wild Arms 5 and Avalon Code

avalon code-anwarThey aren’t bad games, but I don’t really get excited at the thought of playing them either.

Wild Arms 5 – 20 hours in, maybe? The last scene I recall was riding my monowheel into Twelbit… and there was some fountain or the other in the middle of town. Can’t remember if I saw anything after that. Having the monowheel really helps with getting around the confusing overworld without being mauled by monsters, but there isn’t much to do on the map so it doesn’t matter that much. I got a sixth party member, but of course he’s been benched like everyone else. Waste of time and space. I’m about ready for the remaining mysteries to be revealed so this game can end already.

Avalon Code – Haven’t made much progress. I’m a little into Chapter 4, IIRC. Tia got kidnapped by an old lady in the desert and ran into a short dark and handsome stranger I wouldn’t mind dating in a better game. I’m ready for this one to end quickly as well.

In more dire news, two days ago, a black line of dead pixels appeared on my DS top screen. At first it was only a thin line running half the length of the screen, but yesterday I noticed it was running across the whole DS screen. Now this morning the line is starting to get thicker. I’d already suspected that my dear old DS was on its last legs, but it’s painful to have to watch it die. Happily enough I’ve already played most  of the things I want to play on it. IIRC apart from Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, I only have Covenant of the Plume (which I’m not that enthusiastic about) and the remake of the first Tokyo Majin game (which I’m even less excited about) left to play… oh! wait! Izuna 2! And Fuurai no Shiren 5! Ack! Okay, I’d better stop wasting time on Avalon Code and get started with those, then. Hang in there a few months longer, DS-chan!

Wild Arms 5 – Picking up nicely

wa5-dean-stark4It took about 10 hours, but I’m finally starting to enjoy Wild Arms 5. I got used to the ‘kiddiness’ of the characters and the cheesiness of the story (aliens are discriminating against us!), and in my last session they finally began to introduce the real Save The Planet story. I don’t know why RPGs bother trying to fool gamers into thinking the story is about anything else.

I’m enjoying the battles, at least I thought I’d get sick of hexes pretty quickly, but instead I’m finding them more interesting because I’ve gotten a few new skills and attacks that let me attack various hexes, and I’m just having fun experimenting with those right now.The encounter rate isn’t too high and I like being able to turn encounters off in dungeons (after jumping through a few hoops) in order to explore more thoroughly.

I haven’t bothered to change my standard party of Dean, Avril and Rebecca, though given Avril’s importance to the story she’ll probably leave my party at some point. But then again everyone gets EXP even if they don’t participate, so there’s no real need to switch anyone new in. It’s not like the enemies put up that much of a fight anyway. Their sissiness would be a problem if combat was slow, but since everything dies so quickly I guess I can give them a break. But at least drop more EXP, you stingy creatures!

I quit Wild Arms 2 and more recently Tales of Legendia because the dungeon puzzles really pissed me off, but WA5 has been good so far. Fans of the series might be annoyed at how easy everything is, but it’s just right for me. Most rooms have one, simple puzzle with a very obvious solution which takes all of 30 seconds or so to do – just push this block onto this switch, or freeze this platform so you can walk across, that sort of thing. I mean they’re so easy they might as well not exist, but if they have to exist then straightforward puzzles like this are my kind of thing. The latest dungeon (Baskars Shrine) has me a bit annoyed though, because of this room with moving platforms I have to freeze and unfreeze… *pip* I turned the PS2 off because I was annoyed, but I’ll get back to it later today.

I hope Wild Arms 5 doesn’t drag on too much longer though. It’s fun but not that much fun. About 25-30 hours would be ideal. Any longer than that and I just might toss it.

Avalon Code redux – No, my opinion hasn’t really changed

wpid-Avalon-Code-WallpaperI said I’d give Avalon Code a second chance so I gave Avalon Code a second chance. Last time I quit barely 5 hours into the game, but right now I’m at the 9 hour mark. Of course about 3 of those hours have been spent just fiddling with codes alone, but progress is still progress. Baby steps, baby steps. It helps that I’ve played a lot of action RPGs since 2010 so I’m more used to the kind of running and dashing that the game calls for.

Buuuut… I still think the system is too fussy. I still like the premise and I still wish the game allowed you to focus on that instead of throwing you into boring dungeons with horrible puzzles and wasting tons of time that way. Barely anything has happened story-wise in those 9 hours so when oh when is the story ever going to get going?

And the book is still a pain in the buttocks to control. If I need a simple Iron code to modify a weapon, I have to flip through every single page in the whole book looking for the places where I’ve used iron. And if I don’t have an empty palette to put the Iron on, I have to find a space on another page, put something down (which I might need later) and grab the Iron then flip back to where I need to use it. If they had made a proper code index for the book that would have improved the game by 80%.

We would still have to deal with the dungeon puzzles though. Have I told you lately how much I hate dungeon puzzles? And that even in the best of games, which Avalon Code certainly is not. So, to continue or not to continue? A commenter on my previous Avalon post promised me a “heart-wrenching and nerve-wracking plot twist” which I would kind of like to see, but am I curious enough to put up with terrible gameplay? I know I did it for Suikoden Hyakunen, but the battles there weren’t half as bad as this. Not to mention the chances of finding a complete Let’s Play are higher for AC, so maybe I should do that instead.

…aight, I’ll give it another 3 hours to get its act together and take it from there.

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors – I knew I wouldn’t like it

Nine_Hours,_Nine_Persons,_Nine_Doors_Cover_ArtTo be honest the odds were stacked against 999 from the start.

1. I don’t like visual novels. I don’t think I’ve made a secret of this dislike or of the reason: they’re really boring to read. The dialogue parts aren’t so bad, but there’s always a lot of description of things that don’t need describing (because we can see them, because this is a visual novel) and a lot of time-wasting before anything happens. It’s especially annoying in 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors because they’re supposed to be trying to escape with their lives, but they spend an extraordinary amount of time chatting or bickering about little things when I’m screaming in my head “Just open the door already!”

2. I don’t like puzzle games. I’ve played and liked a few such games here and there, but it’s not a genre I really enjoy or one that I actively seek out. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

L2 Love x Loop – So boring I couldn’t keep playing

l2 love x loop wallpaper2Yes, Idea Factory actually managed to make a game worse than Kurunugyaaah. And they achieved it quite easily too, by making L2 Love x Loop unspeakably dull. Bad games I can handle. Boring games? Urgh… If this was on the DS or the PSP then maybe I might have toughed it out and completed at least one route, but my PS2 is on its last legs as it is so I have no time to waste. And seeing as the game is so poor, I’m not going to waste too much time writing about it either. I quit and here, in short form, is why:

1. Main reason: There’s too much talking. Yeah, I know it’s a visual novel, but still! They keep repeating themselves – robots this, robots that, Eua this, Eua that. On top of that their dialog is choked with lengthy, unnatural explanations about things that don’t shouldn’t need explanation for the in-game characters. And the writing just doesn’t read very well, so it’s hard to follow much of the time. Do please go on, this is most interesting →