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It's late. You glance at the clock on the wall; 1:47AM. You and your online 'pals' are deep in a game of Call of Duty 4. Throwing a grenade, you have what has plagued all of us, all of our lives, tiredness. You cry out to your teammates "Back in 5, I need some instant energy!"
Stumbling through the darkness, you are greeted with the age old task, how to stay awake...
So yeah! How do all of you take on the big bad tiredness monster? Do you ignore it completely, and play until passing out? Do you submit and go to sleep? Or do you use one of the 'age old' methods listed here?
What's your favorite caffeinated soda or energy drink, if these methods are used?
Do you regret having caffeine ever? Why?
Just some questions that I want to here from
You, the reader!!! This is the first in a (hopefully) ongoing so-called 'question' blogs, where I ask
you the question. A sneak peak of the next question is 'How did you find rfgeneration in the first place?'
So, whadda ya say? Let's here some responses!
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The quest for goodies this week met with a bit of a failure in the quantity department, but a huge success in the quality stakes. I did my normal weekly trawl of the charity shops, coming up trumps at the start of the week, but a BFZ (that's a big fat zero for you DOOM fans) today.
Game BoyBurai fighter Deluxe
Ghostbusters II
Pac-Man
Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear
Double Dragon
Golf
Solar Striker
The Amazing Spider-Man
Now not only are these boxed, but they also have the little plastic bag for the cartridge, the Nintendo poster, the manual and the registration card, and I paid GBP 3 for each of them.
PlaystationFinal Fantasy VIII
Not particularly impressive, but it's in better condition than the one I currently own, and it was GBP 3.
Playstation 2Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
This one is a bit of a cheat actually as my friend
Data picked it up for me when it became available in his hometown. This week was the first time we'd been able to co-ordinate the handover of game and money, so a big thanks to him for that. GBP 35
Grand total: GBP 62.00
Months total: GBP 127.96
Year to date: GBP 262.51
Alright... here are six tracks that I feel that completely set the mood for the areas/bosses/stages in their respective games but are overlooked. Well, here they are, and sorry if some of these aren't overlooked.
Saturos Battle Theme- Golden Sun
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/iEjqqUTz-us&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/iEjqqUTz-us&rel=0</a>]]>Heh, this entire game (series) music is ridiculously good but no one seems to talk much about it. Anyway, this song starts off strong, then gets mellow, then picks up again. Uh, I don't know how to describe it just listen to it.
Midnight Carnival- Guilty Gear X2
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/LKJ9AVrpM9s&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/LKJ9AVrpM9s&rel=0</a>]]>Every final boss needs a badass theme. This is probably the most badass final boss theme I've ever heard.
Stickerbrush Symphony- Donkey Kong Country 2
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/73n7HTcmb5g&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/73n7HTcmb5g&rel=0</a>]]>Hearing this brings back some of the fondest memories I have ever had playing games. For those who have played the game, there is no denying how perfectly the song fits the Bramble levels. And it's just so damn soothing and pleasant.
Calling- The World Ends With You
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/i0569Wt-cZ0&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/i0569Wt-cZ0&rel=0</a>]]>It's kind of like your typical J-pop song, nothing particularly super special or anything but it is a good song. The real reason it made the list is because of how effectively it places a sense of imminent danger, need to speed up, and frantic choices that are the main theme of the game. The lyrics 'wake up leave your hesitation, wake up time to show appreciation, wake up time to realize' could not better epitomize what Neku needs to do and how lost he really is.
The Opened Way- Shadow of the Colossus
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/R3PRXFLJYcw&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/R3PRXFLJYcw&rel=0</a>]]>This song is absolutely epic. It is riveting, demanding, and very powerful. Even without knowing anything about the game just by hearing the music you know there is a monstrous task to perform. And damn, is there ever.
Cornered- Phoenix Wright
<![CDATA[<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/wq1jknZp0ic&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/wq1jknZp0ic&rel=0</a>]]>There is no song more riveting in any game. You get completely pumped up and know you are on the verge of absolutely destroying the prosecutions case. No song ever in the history of games has been more pivotal to the game (excluding music games) than Cornered. If you have played the game, you know this is true.
Hope you guys enjoyed the list. They aren't really in a particular order or anything (though Cornered is definitely my favorite).
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Welcome to the third, and final, in my series retrospective on the Pokemon franchise. This final entry will cover the Advance Generation of the Pokemon series, which spanned even games on the Gameboy Advance, four on the GameCube, and three on the Nintendo DS. The Advance Generation was a sort of reboot for the franchise, when Ruby and Sapphire were originally released for the GBA, they were not connected in any way to the previous games in the series. The stories weren't connected like the first two generation games were, the new region, Hoenn, was in a completely different part of the Pokemon world, with no connection to either Kanto or Johto, and while Ruby and Sapphire contained data for all of the Pokemon from the previous games, a vast majority of them were unobtainable within the games themselves, without the use of a cheating device, and the games featured no way to connect to any of the previous releases. Some fans felt this lack of connection to the previous games was a step in the wrong direction and questioned whether or not Nitendo truely knew what they wanted to do with the franchise, little did we know that Nintendo did have something in mind, but we'd have to wait some time to see what it was...
Continue reading Gaming in Retrospect: Pokemon Generation III
The Gamecube was definately not known for its robust RPG library last generation. The PS2 did a good job of blowing both other systems (combined) out of the water in that category (I don't know enough about the Dreamcast to confindently add it to that remark). That said the Gamecube still has a surprisingly strong showing in the RPG arena if you look closely. Games like: Fire Emblem, Tales of Symphonia, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Phantasy Star Online, X-Men Legends and Harvest Moon lead the pack. There are still a few other Cube RPGs that fell under the radar of most gamers.
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (henceforth known as BK) deserves a lot more attention then it gets. Lets take a closer look at its strengths and weaknesses, shall we?
STRENGHTS:StoryThis is "THE" most important factor of any RPG in my opinion. In most genres I'd say gameplay is key, but RPGs are the exception. If your going to be investing 20-40 hours of your life into a game it had better be darn interesting.
The game starts off with Kalas waking up in a small town after getting beaten up in the woods. After he regains his composure and figures out where he is he remembers his goal. Kill Giacomo the man who killed his family and burned his home down.
As you progress you find that the Empire is trying to ressurect the power of an ancient god that swalled the entire ocean leaving only a few islands left on the planet. Kalas eventually meets some others that join his party that are out to stop the emperor from suceeding in his plan. Kalas is reluctant to join, but because Giacomo is a higher up in the Empire he joins because their mission because it may eventually lead him to get the revenge he desires.
Visuals
This is by far my favorite looking game on the Cube. While some games may be more graphically impressive such as Resident Evil 4 the art sytle of BK game really shines above. The entire world and all the characters in it are very bright and vibrant and full of life. The world really seems to be alive as you explore it. Simple things such as running through some bushes and spooking some birds to see them take off in a large group gives an extra amount of depth to the islands you explore.
Each Island you explore in this game has its own unique visual identity, wheather it be a lush green forest like enviroment or a hazy mountain top covered in clouds each place you visit is vastly different from the last.
BattleThis is another area in which this game really shines. At first the game just throws you into battle without much explanation and you slowly learn some tricks to help increase your skills over the next couple hours of game play through both experimentation and NPC tutorials.
You fight using a card based battle system. Each card belongs to an element and has at least 1 spirit number assigned to it. At first you can only attack with a couple cards, but as you level up and progress throughout the game the amount of cards you can lay down during battle increases.
Each Element type obviously damages enemies of opposite types more than those of the same time (such as Water hurts Fire based Enemies more than Dark would). But if you use a water based attack and a fire based attack in the same turn they partially cancel each other out (attack for 10 water and 6 fire in the same turn would result in a final attack of 4 water). This keeps you on your toes and quite aware of what cards to use and when to use them. It also involves quick thinking on your part because after you use your first card you have a very limited time to use your next few cards.
As I mentioned above each card also has a spirit number. These numbers range from 1 to 8 and cards can have multiple numbers on them. If you manage to attack an enemy with a straight sequence of cards (such as 5-6-7) then a bonus percentage of damage is added to you final attack. As you become capable of playing more cards during battle later in the game you find more and more combinations become available to you (such as 2-2-2-3-3 or a full house) that will add more depth to your fights as you may choose to play less cards than you are capable of in order to receive a prize bonus to your final attack.
One more interesting note about battle combinations is that you can combine seemingly useless items (or useful items too) by using them together to create more helpful items. For example you can attack with a pot, some uncooked rice and charcoal to create a healing item of cooked rice.
Overworld ExplorationThis is pretty standard as far as RPGs go, but if its not broken dont fix it right?
You explore the world as your main character Kalas (other party members only appear during non-playable areas such as cut sceens or NPC interactions). To enter a battle you simply touch an on screen enemy to initiate the battle.
Lots of items are hidden in ordinary scenery so make sure to check everything you come accross during your journey to collect a lot of helpful items and cards.
PuzzlingThis is another one of my favorite parts of the game. Most of the puzzles in this game are not necessary to further the story so if you not all that into puzzling just skip most of them. You'll be out a few items that may help, but you can always grind your levels up a bit to make up for it if you prefer.
Throughout the game you get a limited number of Blank Magnus (Magnus is just a fancy name for cards). With these you can turn items, such as fire, into a card so that you can carry it to another location. So while your in town and you see someone has a roaring fire in their home you can take some of that flame with you into the forest and burn down a tree to gain access to a treasure chest.
Time MechanicThis is something that is really cool to play around with and also a little frusterating at times. Lots of items change with time in BK.
For instance if you originally find a bunch of Bananas they might be Green Bananas. These are not good to eat yet and will function more as a weak weapon than anything else. After some time though they will ripen and become a useful healing item. After more time has passed then will rot and once again become a weapon.
This same mechanic has a few other functions such as puzzle solving. If an NPC is looking for a specific item such as yogurt or cheese and you only have access to milk, you simply have to wait until your milk has aged enough to turn into either item, just dont wait to long or it may not be they wanted when you get it to them!
One last fucntion the time mechanic plays is in gaining money. Instead of selling items in BK you take pictures of enemies during battle and sell those pictures to card shops. The pictures develop like a polaroid would. To get the most money for your picture you need to wait long enough for it to delevop properly, but dont wait to long or they will become damaged from your travels and the price you'll fetch will fall considerably.
Levelling upNothing ground breaking just something that I found quite unique and interesting.
Instead of simply gaining a level for a certain amount of experience, you hold onto that experience until you are able to visit a special "church". Once you are there you must pray in order to refect upon your past battles and only then can you increase in strength.
Along with this is the class increase which is treated much the same way as the level increase with the exception that a speical item is given to your character that you must pray with to unlock its potential. By increasing your class you are able to have more cards in your deck and increases the amount of cards you can use for each attack.
WEAKNESSES:CharactersWith the exception of Kalas I find the playable characters in this game quite annoying and stereotypical. Fortunately Kalas is the main character so it does oddly enough balance out. The reason for my annoyance isnt so much the characters themselves as it is the dialouge and voice acting.
I do however find Kalas interesting, as unlike most main characters, he isnt interested in doing any good. He just wants his revenge and could care less who dies or what nation falls in the process. He often voices his objection to joining his teammates and is reluctantly dragged along for a large portion of the story.
Dialouge/Voice ActingSome of the worst I've heard. The old characters (70 years +) sound like a 13 year old is trying to make their voice raspy. The main characters that speak the most (Kalas and Xelha) both have shrill annoying voices and poorly written dialouge that often just sounds weird.
FINAL THOUGHTS:BK is a great game for any RPG fan. The battles are a lot less boring than your typical grindfest because of the random element and depth added by the card based battle system. This game can also appeal to someone who loves puzzles/side quests or to someone who just loves an interesting story. It is also (in my opinion) one of the best looking Gamecube games. This game can easily be found for under $15 and I would highly recommend anyone interested in a new adventure to check it out if possible.
FINAL SCORE - 6.5/10
The Gamecube is sorely lacking in arcade style games and more specifically vertical scrolling shootem'ups. The two that it does have (in North America) are both quite well done. Ikaruga gets a lot of attention, and rightfully so. So I'm going to spend some time talking about Chaos Field, your only other choice for this style of game in the Americas.
Continue reading Unloved #1: Chaos Field
