Castlevania Aria of Sorrow – Starting to enjoy it

castlevania-somaExcept the stupid Clock Tower with all the spikes and stuff. That level needs to burn in the fires of hell from whence it came. I’m really glad I stuck with Aria of Sorrow and didn’t quit even when the weakest bats were ripping Soma to shreds. Haha, who’s the boss now?! …Well, Death, evidently, since he’s tearing me to pieces now. But I’ll get him too, don’t you worry.

Anyway, this is just a quick update, since it looks like I’ll actually be finishing this game sooner rather than later. It’s also a quick thank you to all those who encouraged me to play and keep playing it. Castlevania is actually kind of fun! Except the spikes. Even the bosses are fun in a despairing kind of way. I’ve come this far without cheating or getting anyone to help me, and I’m going to try and try again until I can finish it on my own.

What’s the most fun about it? The backtracking! When I first struggled through my first two bosses and finished the earlier stages I thought “I’m never going back there again, not for a million dollars!” But it’s great when you’ve leveled up a bit and got some new skills and equips to go swaggering back to your old haunts all like “How d’you like me now?” Enemies that used to take a good chunk out of your life are now hitting for 1 damage. Mwahaha, you’re 100 years too early to defeat me!!! etc etc. Though of course the real purpose of backtracking is to visit places you couldn’t get to before. Which is nice and all, but not nearly as fun as bullying the enemies that used to bully you.

I’m at roughly 50% map completion and it’s taken me weeks to get here, so it’ll probably take another month to finish the game or ‘die’ trying. I’ll report my final thoughts whatever they are when I finally finish it or quit playing (haha, not likely).

Summon Night 4 – A paean to the joys of slave ownership (spoilers)

summon night 4_frontAs promised here are a few words about how much I enjoyed playing Summon Night 4 and how much it scratched my strategy RPG itch so that I won’t be playing another one for a while. Unless I feel like it.

Unfortunately with the benefit of hindsight, I’m starting to realize I didn’t enjoy SN4 all that much. I mean, it was nice and all, but the further I get from it, the more I start to wonder what I saw in it. Apart from the fact that it’s an SRPG and that it’s Summon Night, of course.

It was a good game, no question about that. Apart from the story, which I will elaborate on below. I don’t remember much of the story in the first two games and SN3’s story was quite abysmal so maybe SN4 is just following in that proud tradition. They even have the customary “fight 15 battles against the same enemies who later join your party” thing going on as usual but I’d already grown to expect as much so I wasn’t the least surprised.

Summon Night 4 is significantly easier than its predecessors and would be a good introduction to the series if there weren’t so, so many references to earlier games in it. For a series fan like me it wasn’t that much of a problem, but in another series I would be quite annoyed. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Laziness is forever~

summon night 4 feaI finished Summon Night 4 two days ago, but I don’t feel like writing anything about it right now. And then the days and years will pass without me ever writing anything about it and that will be the end of that. I enjoyed it, it had a great cast and it’s certainly the most accessible (i.e. easiest) of the main Summon Night games so far, but that doesn’t make it especially remarkable. More on that when I find the time to jot down a few comments. As for what I’m playing right now…

Castlevania Aria of Sorrow – No, I haven’t given up yet. I still feel like I’m going to be killed any minute and it doesn’t really feel like Soma has gotten any stronger since the game started, but I’m hanging in there. The key is to study all the enemies patiently and tackle them one by one if possible. And don’t try to rush through the stages or the bosses will murderlize you. It’s probably going to take the rest of the year to finish it at the rate I’m going, but I’ll do my best.

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3 – Supposedly the best of the Harukanaru games. I’ve only played about an hour, but I’m already getting uncomfortable flashbacks of the debacle known as Harutoki 4. I think I’m going to shelve this for a bit.

Rune Factory Tides of Destiny – The game that’s consuming most of my time right now. I hated it in the first week when it felt like nothing was happening, but now I’m almost addicted. In fact I just got done with a very lengthy playing session, which is why I’m too tired to write about Summon Night 4. The dungeons are more challenging than ever before, so with my newfound love of ARPGs I’m having a great time. Everything else about the game is seriously meh, even the waifu selection. But still, early days yet. It’s Summer 4 and I just unlocked the second shrine so I’ve still got a long way to go.

And that’s it for what I’m working on right now. My PS2 and I have yet to come to an agreement, but we’re working on it. Wish us luck!

Gakkou wo Tsukurou!! Advance review

Gakkou wo Tsukurou AdvanceGakkou wo Tsukurou!! is a 5-game life sim series published by Victor Interactive Software, now part of Marvelous AQL Interactive or whatever it is they call themselves now. The first three games are on the Playstation, the fourth one is on the GBA and the last one came out on the PS2 in 2005.

I played a game about school-building called Dekitate High School a few months ago. It was terrible. But the school-building idea itself was very interesting, so when I heard about the Gakkou wo Tsukurou series I couldn’t wait to try it. While Gakkou wo Tsukurou!! Advance (Gakkou from now on) appears to a pared-down version of the console games, it was still enough to provide a taster of things to come. It dragged on a bit near the end of the game but it was still fun enough that I’d like to play the rest quite soon.

Story: Your grandpa owned a school but he died before he could fulfill his dream of making it the No.1 school in Japan. He leaves the school to you in his will along with a bit of money and not much else. Fortunately the formidable headteacher has been taking care of things, so while all the teachers have left and some of the students have turned delinquent, not everything has gone completely to pot. It’s up to you now to turn things around and set things right while fending off the attempts of a rival school to take over your affairs. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Real Rode Portable – Somari GET!

real rode portable somari happy endJust typing up loose ends in Real Rode Portable. Somari is a character who wasn’t in the original ‘game’ Nina played. He shows up out of nowhere with no memory of his past. What dark, dire secret could he possibly be hiding? I was a little curious so I went ahead and did his route.

Somari’s secret? You can find out for yourself if you play the game. It was really quite unexpected in a way that makes you go “Aargh, why didn’t I see that coming?!” I got the happy ending, which left a ton of questions unanswered, but I could tell Somari’s alternate ending was going to be really horrible, so I had no choice but to avoid it this time. This is another end where Nina gets to go back to her original end, so all’s well that ends well. Do please go on, this is most interesting →