Time To Start Over... Again!

I'm twenty-five hours into Suikoden 3, and in Thomas' chapter one. The Japanese adore their RPG systems. New to Suikoden 3 is the Trinity Sight System. The game is told from three separate points of view. In the beginning of the game you watch one of three character introduction scenes, then proceed to choose which character to start with. You have Hugo, a hunter from the Grasslands.  Geddoe, a mercenary and outsider to the region. Chris, the leader of the knights of Zexen, the well-off merchant state. You can choose to play them in any order you wish. You could go ahead and play Chris' chapter one, two, and three, before going on to Hugo's chapter one.  However you wish. Somewhere along the line the completely optional chapters of Thomas open up. Skipping them would be insane to me. As anyone who has played Suikoden knows, half the fun is in the castle building aspect of the game. In each game of the series, you acquire and manage a castle. It serves as far more than a story point, or just the home of the 108 Stars of Destiny. In the series, you recruit people. The aforementioned 108 Stars of Destiny. 108 people who change the course of history by small and great means. They all have their purpose. Some of them will become your strongest characters in battle. Some of them perform the daily tasks of the castle. They cook, they build, they farm, they entertain, they're blacksmiths, merchants, strategists, and more. And of course, in all games in the series, they're the key to the real ending. You'll need all of them for it. Anyway, with the Trinity Sight System, the three characters reveal the main story, and Thomas is this game's castle master. It's in Thomas' game that most of the castle's aspects are played out. Although you can recruit the 108 Stars of Destiny with all of the characters, except for the few character specific recruitment situations. The Trinity Sight System is a more advanced means in which to tell the story. A more dangerous one. You're jumping around in time, seeing many of the same events from the different main character's points of view. Getting new angles on each one. New wrinkles. With this comes different character levels. So if you start with Chris for example, all your characters for her initial party are around level twenty. Which makes sense for the story. They are experienced knights. And Hugo's an experienced hunter starting around level twelve or so. Switching to Thomas, who comes into play some twenty or so hours in, is sort of a shock. He and his initial party are all level one. So twenty or so hours in, you're starting over, so to speak. It's quite the bold choice. Not the easiest path to RPG accessibility. But then, Konami isn't really trying to put this series in as many systems as the average Final Fantasy RPG. They aren't trying for mass-appeal. They're trying to merely put a twist on what their fans expect. Suikoden games become scarce on store shelves because Konami releases the exact amount of games it knows the series will sell, plus five...

A Little Luck Goes A Long Way

I'm sixteen hours into Suikoden 3, still in Geddoe's chapter one. I'm liking it while not yet hooked. Some luck has made the ride easier this time around. I won the lottery. Something I ignored in the game the first time around. This happened with Hugo, who is a dirt poor hunter from the Grasslands. I did the same thing for Geddoe, who is a mercenary and worried about the budget. This changes things drastically. In Suikoden you don't get new weapons. You upgrade the one you have. So I'm able to maximize my weapons to the regional limit for the entire party right off. I didn't need to worry about money for Chris' chapter one, as she's a well paid Zexen Knight. She starts with 200,000 potch. This extra money has also allowed me to outfit my parties with the best armor. I've also used my relaxed pacing approach to spend some time just building skill points. Skill points are used to build the skills of each character. The level of damage they do, their parry, their accuracy.  I've maximized them for the most part and am now working on building their magic power. I've managed to recruit quite a few of the 108 Stars of Destiny already. Many of them I never even noticed originally. The story is still in the setup phase of the typical Suikoden political intrigue story, so it hasn't kicked in to high gear as of yet. It's looking good, for now. Let's see where it goes from here.

Revisionist History? Maybe so, and definitely not.

Let's start with the definitely not first, Super Mario Sunshine. The couple hours I spent attempting to replay Super Mario Sunshine brought all my original opinions screaming home. This game just flat out sucks. The camera sucks. It works against you. It only took the first couple of stages without the FLUDD. The ones where you run through those floating gauntlets, the pachinko like tables you navigate down, and those giant slides. I truly find those to be unplayable because of the camera. I found it true then, I find it true now. The game doesn't have that Nintendo polished feel. It looks like it does on the surface. But that's the problem. The one place it's actually most important, the game play isn't polished. It's rough and unfinished feeling. It feels imitation Nintendo. I will not suffer through Super Mario Sunshine. I just can't. Only this time I have no qualms or regrets. It's the correct thing to do. The game blows.

As for the maybe so, Suikoden 3, I'm eight hours in. I've played through Hugo's chapter 1, and Chris' chapter 1. While I'm definitely not hooked as of yet, I can say that I'm enjoying it thus far. I'm taking my time. Not rushing the story. Not freaking out over trying to recruit the 108 Stars of Destiny. This game came out originally in the middle of all the majors of its season. And I believe I was rushing to get to them. Which is always a mistake. But you know how it goes. I will take my time. Give it all the chance in the world to grab me. We'll see how it goes.

Playing to Completion

There was a time where it would have been inconceivable for me not to finish a game. No matter how bad it was. I've completed pretty much every game I've ever rented, borrowed, or owned. That was until the last couple years. Now there is a real possibility I won't finish something if I don't like it overall. Has my determination finally weakened with age? Has my tolerance vanished? Have my tastes just become more discriminating? I don't know the answer. I know I don't like it, whatever it is. Does this even bother the average gamer? The list of abandoned games is probably a lot shorter than the average gamer's, but it still disturbs me a little. Some of the more prominent titles include Fatal Frame, Siren, Wild Arms 3, Suikoden 3, Final Fantasy X, Super Mario Sunshine, and Dark Cloud.  Considering the window of time I have before the must play titles of January arrive, and that I don't have Sly Cooper which I must play before Sly 2, I have decided to try to complete one or two of these titles. I have decided to retry Super Mario Sunshine, and Suikoden 3. Suikoden 4 prominently features one of the Suikoden 3 main characters. I should play through it for that reason alone.  Super Mario Sunshine was chosen to erase the stigma I feel for not have been able to finish a freaking Mario game. Let's see how these fair the second time around.

Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors -- Final Opinion

Otogi 2 provided me with twenty-six hours and ten minutes worth of perfect gaming. I earned the 100% and A rankings for the twenty-six levels where that counts, and completed all eighteen Havoc missions. I have no complaints. Everything was flawless. The gameplay I adore. The graphics are on par with the best ever seen for this generation of consoles. The challenge was tough, but always fair. Camera issues were too far and too few in between to even consider knocking the game. The music is fitting and well done all around. In both composition and sound quality. The length was perfect. The story was classic Japanese mythology. The voice acting top notch. I started with referring to it as perfect gaming, and I'm going to score it as such. I've given it a ten. The original was my Game of the Year for its year, and Otogi 2 is in serious contention for Game of the Year 2004. Now, for the 1.5 people likely reading this, I'm not going to suggest you rush right out and get it.  Even though I surely consider it a must personally. The game recommendation comes with one caveat in my opinion, you need to be of the right mindset to appreciate it fully. What mindset you might be asking? The mindset of being able to appreciate the ratio of the combination of style and skill to fun factor. In other words, being able to enjoy rising to the challenge. If you liked games like Gunvalkyrie, Shinobi (PS2), Nightshade, and Ninja Gaiden (Xbox -- I am including this game from what I've heard about it, as I've not yet played it), then I would suggest you look into Otogi and Otogi 2. Hopefully there will be an Otogi 3.

Escort Missions.

Otogi 2 has provided me with the first actually fun escort mission I can remember. Not possible you say? I would have thought that too. I'm aware of escort missions as the bane of every longtime gamer's existence. But what makes them such dreaded events? The unfair nature of the beast? The retarded AI? The cheap surprise near the goal with a rush of enemies? Otogi 2's has me wondering about control and pacing. Because that's what makes this one fun. They don't remove any control and they allow for flexibility in your pacing. In the course of the game Raikoh gets split into two parts, his light side, and his shadow side. The level has you escorting your shadow to a shrine where the ritual to unite you into one can take place. The demon horde isn't about to let that happen. Your shadow isn't too bright. No pun intended. It's actually obsessed with light. All through the level are ceremonial torches. Your shadow will head right to the nearest one at the start of the level and just stay there entranced by the dancing flame. The demon horde heads directly to your shadow knowing if they destroy your shadow, your light side will be trapped in hell forever. You have to defend your shadow. Once you've cleared an area you can destroy the torch your shadow side is currently obsessed with, causing it to move on to the next nearest one. So you move, clear, move, clear. They do throw in a wrinkle, but it's actually cool. Some enemies have a fire attribute. Your shadow side will home right in on them. So you have to be aware of what your shadow is actually tracking. There are multiple paths to take as well. You control where by simply removing certain torches in advance. It's this aspect of control, and pacing that makes the difference from every other horrific escort mission I've ever played. This has me contemplating just what's at the core of why we hate escort missions.  Maybe the psychological effect from loss of control and the resulting pacing plays a larger role than the more on the surface dealing with retarded AI and unfair enemy placement. Escort missions are here to stay. They are sound on a couple levels. Story wise they work. They also add variety to level progression. Developers will continue to employ them.  Developers should look into more control as a means to offset what's wrong with them. Or maybe that's just me.

Monopolies & Otogi & Sly, oh my!

Today Electronic Arts announced that it plans to acquire 19.9% of Ubi Soft. The deal is done, pending the government approval. This comes on the heels of Electronic Arts' announcement of acquiring the exclusive rights to the NFL license.  Assuring Madden's place at the top spot for the next five years. On the business side of things that's a tactically brilliant move. On the creative side of things this comes off as cowardly and evil and unfair. This kills competition in the genre of football games entirely. It's over for five years. A monopoly in my opinion. A very bad thing. This company does not need more power...

As for Otogi 2, I'm through level ten or eleven. Still loving it. Still impressed. Still feeling happily obligated to earn 100% and A ranks. They've added Havoc Levels. Each one is essentially an optional challenge. Destroy one-hundred arches before the time runs out. Defend the Tree of Life from the invading demon horde. Fly through the arches without touching the water within the time limit. Destroy enough grass in the level by using enemies to damage the level itself. Half the time you'll earn some reward for your effort. Other times you'll just get EXP to level your characters, which is always a plus. This is a nice little bonus to an already great game. It's nice to see companies going that little extra mile.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves arrived today. I got it from Sony for free for sending in the demo disc that contained Viewtiful Joe 2 which had a nice habit of formatting your memory card. Sony allowed you to pick a game as compensation, I chose Sly 2. What this actually is getting to is they wanted to mark the casing to show it was from this for some reason I'm not entirely sure of. Maybe so you couldn't trade it in for cash or something. They drilled a hole clean through the PS2 logo in the top right of the casing. Through the front, the manual, the back. Clean through. To this I say... WTF? The game works fine though. I'm none too pleased about the casing and manual, free game or not.

Online Gaming Moments.

Online gaming has provided me with some of the best moments in gaming I've had. Most of them are of two categories. Great game moments themselves. Out-sniping the sniper Magus in Halo 2, the general surviving a situation I shouldn't have with anyone, taking out the opposing eight players in SOCOM 2 after my seven teammates had been killed to leave me alone. The other standard category online games provide us with is humor. The talking shit that goes on in general. The "oh no no no no no..." you get from Magus as you attack him in Halo 2. The literal gasps, screams, cries, and shrieks you get from Riddel when you kill her with any level of surprise. Today's little online gaming experience wasn't one of the above. It wasn't one of the good kind either. It was rather freaky and unpleasant. Magus, Riddel and I were playing Halo 2 when Riddel started having a nosebleed. Magus showed his usual concern and we all played on. A little while later she started coughing. Which led to a coughing fit. This led to what sounded like gasps, and wheezing, and hiccups all at once. This went on for a while. Magus and I became concerned as it went on and on. And then it tapered out with no response from her. And eventually silence. And we had been there for a while and essentially listened to her pass out to full unconsciousness. She is apparently okay as she later emailed me saying as much. I don't know the full details yet. Online gaming, opening a world a possible experiences. Many I never considered...

Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors

Started in on Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors today. My initial impressions would have me believe we have more of the same greatness that was the original Otogi: Myth of Demons. I've played through the first five levels. Earning the 100% and A ranks for the first four. For spirits collected, and damage dealt to the level respectively. I need to replay the fifth stage to earn them before moving on to the next stage. But of course, that's just me. The graphics are just about the most gorgeous I've ever seen. Especially in art direction. They're steeped in traditional ancient Japanese. They have effects on top of effects. From Software really knows how to make a game functionally pretty. As in the active played-in environments as opposed to some rendered backdrop or FMV section. The music is just as lush. Also steeped in traditional Japanese. They've added five new playable characters beyond Raikoh from the original game. Each one not only conceptually different from the rest, but they play differently. Distinctly unique within the game. The voice over is really good. They've left the option to have the original Japanese voices. That's something I normally don't give a shit about, but in a game where everything is so heavily Japanese, it's nice and completes the overall Japanese effect. I have the urge to play it some more. It's going to be one of those games. The ones that call to you when you're not playing them. Otogi: Myth of Demons was my Game of the Year choice for 2003, even though we (The VGL) didn't actually have a list for 2003. I'm going to resist that urge to play it by seeing about some Halo 2 online. Don't want to reach the end too soon, you know. The ladies don't like that.