Happy New Year! Plus 2015 gaming resolutions

calvin and hobbes resolutionsHappy New Year! The number 2015 sounds so accomplished and mature somehow, so that means I have to be mature and accomplished about my gaming choices this year. Or I could just take the easy route and play whatever catches my eye like I always do. Decisions, decisions…

Last year I only managed to play 3 of the 6 games I put on the list, which is a failing grade in any class in the world. The three I didn’t get round to will get gaming priority early this year, and then I’ll be tackling sequels to games I mostly regretted playing. Why play the sequels then? Because I’m a secret masochist, that’s why. Without my further ado, my 2015 list:

1. Shining Ark (PSP) – Shining Blade was terrible, but its flaws are fairly easily fixed: better story, no more cameos and challenging enemies to use the excellent battle system against. I have faith in Sega’s ability to fix these problems, but just because they can do something doesn’t mean they will. I won’t force myself to finish Shining Ark if it proves to be as bad as its predecessor. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Merry Christmas, every-nyan! Plus some site news

gaming at christmasChristmas is a time for hanging out with family, eating and drinking lots of delicious treats and then sleeping everything off like a baby, little suspecting the horror that awaits you the next time you step on the bathroom scale.

As a dutiful citizen, I have been doing my part to make the world a little heavier… and not just by eating a mountain of cake. Of the 5 (!) cakes I baked in the past week, only one was a complete disaster, and two of them were actually pretty good! I must have leveled up in Baking in the past year. Maybe one day I’ll even be able to make edible bread!

Which is all to say I haven’t done too much gaming over the past couple of days. And actually I couldn’t play Wild Arms 5 if I wanted to, because my brother has commandeered my PS2 and is replaying Dragon Quest VIII for the 5th (or is it 6th) time. Between my two brothers, that game has been played at least 10 times from start to finish. We definitely got our money’s worth on that one… except it’s my money and I’ve never played the game and probably never will at this rate. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

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.