Completed: Borderlands (on 6/22/13)

System: PC
Status: Completed (on 6/22/13)

Borderlands is certainly a well reviewed and looked at franchise, so I doubt anything I say will be too new to people looking into it. On the surface, it certainly fills a niche that feels like it needs to be filled, an FPS RPG with randomly generated/dropped guns and equipment. The game fills that niche very well, and the game has a very unique sense of humor to it. It does an extremely good job at characterization of the world of Pandora, and I tended to mostly play through just to see what the next crazy thing to happen was.

Where the game does tend to slow down is the combat itself is very samey for most of the game. No matter what upgrades or new skills you get, they tend to not change the basic game mechanics very  much. You'll run up to an area of huts and houses, enemies will spawn from doors or be standing around, and you'll find cover, trying to get headshots for criticals or using your class skill to do extra damage, and the enemies will die. The strategies the enemies use change a bit, mostly when you get to the Crimson Lance enemies, or in the expansions, but most of the time you're fighting bandits, and everything tends to go the same way. You're not relying on your own skills too much though, as a huge factor is what gear you get in random drops, and sometimes you'll be scraping by on a too-low level gun, or find one that is so much better than your others that you'll only be using that gun for a long damn time.

Still, that was a long paragraph that basically boiled down to me as "I needed to take breaks from the game at times." It is still an amazingly fun game, it just tends to wear on you a bit when you go from place to place shooting the same guys. The personality of the game goes a long way to alleviating the annoyances.

The game and all of its expansions are completed, finished on second run. Don't have all the achievements, but many of them require multiplayer on the old Gamespy network, so...no dice there.

Completed: Xenosaga I, II, and III (beaten/completed on various dates)

System: PS2
Status: Completed (all of them)

The Xenosaga series is one that certainly aimed high, and ended up being completely forgettable (at least for me anyway). I loved the semi-predecessor in Xenogears, despite the utter wreck that is the second disc of that game, and this series seemed to do the same on a multi-game scale, they had high ambitions and designs, but ran out of steam/funding and ended up with much less. It certainly didn't help that all three games are very different in style and design, and their systems don't stay consistent, leading to no actual refinement, but wild swinging of things a game does well, and does poorly. The story between all of them stays consistent, but is basically inscrutable to anyone who doesn't read the supplementary materials, and likely suffers a great deal from the series being cut short(er) than the designers would have liked. I'll go through each game individually though.

Xenosaga I feels like the most direct successor to Xenogears. The combat system is very similar, in that you pick various attacks that add up to larger special attacks. The mix of mechs and ground combat works pretty well, though in general the special attacks of the characters fall far short of their normal attacks, so you generally won't use your spell abilities (not to mention the character that is focused on healing/special attacks can't take a hit). Overall game wise, the balance works out well, its fun to play, with only a few frustrations gameplay wise. The best part of the game is the side card game that is actually very fun to play and well designed, but doesn't make an appearance in any other games, and doesn't impact the main game in any way other than being an inefficient way of getting money. Overall, the first game is average, a decent RPG but nothing absolutely amazing, nor does it stand out in any particular aspect.

Xenosaga II is...much worse than the first game. They changed the art style around majorly, where the first was very animesque, the second shoots right to 'realistic' and is pretty jarring in the transition. The worst change though is the combat system. They take the 'combo' attack system, and remove most special attacks entirely from normal fighting. Your characters get only a few moves per round, and need to hit certain combos on enemies in order to start doing real damage, any damage before that is mostly scratch damage. So in any combat situation beyond common enemies, and sometimes even then, combat is a few turns of 'waiting' to build up attacks, then one huge combo boosted between characters to do as much damage as possible. It is very jarring to have to spend combat turns waiting, because if you don't get at least X number of attacks in to break their guard, you do nothing. What makes it worse is some enemies are immune to certain attack types, weak to things only one character does, and the like. In the end, you end up using a certain short list of characters because they can hit the most weaknesses and do the most straight up melee damage. If I had to score this game individually, I would put it way below par, the only real reason to play it is to see the story before the next game in the series.

Xenosaga III is a nice medium of art styles between the first two. Its not full on big-eye'd anime style, but not fully realistic either, and ends up looking the best for it. The combat system is a good medium as well, and it is quite fun to work through and doesn't make combat a  bore like the second did. This game seems to be where the designers finally settled down on one thing to do, and it works out quite well as they hit their stride. The sidequest system they shoved into the game though, is completely awkward. They basically formalized sidequests, but they did so in a way that if you aren't following a guide 100% through the game, you won't get everything from the sidequests, and will spend hours looking for random characters with no hints from the game itself. Thankfully, its not required to get to the bonus bosses, so no big deal there. The bonus bosses end up being cakewalks though, and the entire game does, once you get the robot summon spells near the middle of the game. The only limiting factor there is your MP, otherwise they will utterly wreck every enemy and boss in the game. The bonus boss is specifically designed to be killed by only those summon spells, leaving the otherwise well done combat system lacking...why bother, when you can one shot everything?

So overall, the series is...ok, the biggest problem is the utterly lackluster second game, which was a big hurdle for me to get through to the rather well done third game. I feel if they had made more of these games and finished the story it would likely be a more positive memory, but the problem is that audience isn't going to keep buying games if they suck in hopes you'll get better.

These are completed, all bonus bosses wiped out the first time around, so they are off my list fully.

Completed: Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (on 4/04/13)

System: SNES
Status: Completed

When the wife and I first moved to Cheong-ju, she found a little game store that had a Super Famicom for sale, along with a ton of games for it. Naturally, we snapped these up. Personally, I could always play these via roms, but actually owning them gave me reason to actually finish them. They are now basically the full list of SNES games on my backlog, since my actual US games are back in the states. However, given my Japanese skills are lacking, I actually played these via roms, translated if necessary.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is one of my friend's favorite Final Fantasy's...and I don't see why at all. On its face, its an ok RPG. There really is nothing special about it, and really barely anything that makes it an RPG in the first place. Your selection of items basically is null, you find better gear, you put it on, working your way up to the best gear. There really is no choice in the matter, no benefits/loss or anything of the sort. Even your weapons are basically defined by what kind of damage they do, so the biggest choice you will make in the game is what weapon to use on what enemy. Your allies always use the same gear and can't get better, and you can't choose them either. Boss fights tend to be a matter of luck only, either you deal enough damage to kill them, or they kill you. Leveling helps some, but isn't generally worth it, you could just get a bit luckier next try.

The story is even worse than the gameplay. The original Final Fantasy can be forgiven for its rather base story because it was one of the first (and it still had a better story than the original Dragon Quest, which consisted entirely of 'save princess, kill evil dude, game won'). This game has basically the same story, with less steps and twists than even the original. You can't even explore the map, you're stuck on highlighted paths to areas.

On a positive note, no optional bosses or challenges, so when you finish this game, you never have to touch it again.

Completed: Suikoden IV

System: PS2 (Playing on PS3)
Status: Completed
Currently: Got all 108 stars, beat both optional bosses, finally beat final boss...game locks up.

As the currently states, the game decided to add insult to injury, and froze up right as the final boss died. The sad thing is, I care so little about the finale of the story, that I'm not even going to try again. I got all 108 stars, I beat both optional bosses, I can call the game completed with no remorse.

The sad thing is, my last post was pretty bashing towards this game, yet I was all up for it redeeming itself. Random encounters are annoying, but it could be overcome. The game didn't even try. I truly now believe the horrendous amount of random encounters and the tons of bland characters that serve only for you to spend more money on leveling up weapons and getting gear serve purely to pad out the game. I believe my final time clocked out to be around 25 hours...at full completion. Yes, I followed a brief guide on collecting all the characters, and used Viki to teleport everywhere (you try spending hours just traveling between islands), but the game literally has nothing there. The stars serve no purpose whatsoever. They don't have any plot significance, even the ones you have to get beyond a few lines, and really don't contribute anything overall. The entire story is basically 'go here, do a naval battle, free the island, recruit more characters' rinse repeat for every single island. You will literally go to an island, blow up two ships, and step on the island with hardly any scenes to commemorate them being rescued or anything further.

The game is just offensive, all around. Too many random encounters, too many entirely useless characters, too many bland point A to point B events, a complete lack of any true story to the game whatsoever. This game is utterly terrible, and I now regret playing it even for completions sake...it just felt like a waste of time.

Oh, and the final dungeon, the pinnacle of the entire story? A spiral staircase. 4 screens of the same spiral staircase with random encounters. In addition to half communicated story that we long stopped caring about five hours ago.

I am so glad Suikoden V turned this shit on its head, or I probably wouldn't have many fond memories of this series. I need to play something to wash the taste out of my mouth...

Completed: Suikoden III

System: PS2 (Played on PS3)
Status: Completed
Currently: All 108 stars, extra chapter finished, so completed!

I love the Suikoden series, though I never really owned one until way later on, mostly due to getting the playstation very late in its cycle. I actually played it first by borrowing number 1 from a friend a few times, and beat that without owning it. 3 was actually the first one that I purchased, and since then I've gone on to get all 5 of the main series, plus tactics. I love collecting the characters, the well designed stories, and the very tactical combat the whole series has.

Three is no exception, and the series made a good jump to the ps2 and 3d at the same time. The 3d models are very clean and the art style ages very well, so much so I doubt this game will ever look truly bad compared to modern games. The story was well written and kept me going the entire way, even though technically this was my second time playing through (on my first I realized I had gone past the point of no return for getting all 108 stars, and kinda put it down, this was several years ago). The added fact that the second half can change in story based on which main character you pick, adds a bit of re-playability (though I doubt I will unless I try to do a challenge run). Overall it is one of the most solid JRPGs you can play, and I heartily recommend it to anyone.

My main complaints about the game are more comparisons to others in the same series, and noticeable parts where they changed things, and made them worse. The most noticeable part is the army battles. Where the previous two games took two completely different tacts (the first is more rock paper scissors with special cards, the second is more fire emblem), each time you felt as you gathered up your army and collected all the stars, that your options in combat were growing, and you were becoming noticeably more powerful as an army. Since you really don't get your castle till halfway through the game (where its clear you actually control an army), and since the story is split half the time, most of the army battles have predetermined rosters. In addition, practically every fight is purely scripted, you last a certain number of turns, something happens, its over. You can't really win, just not lose. Even later in the game, the second to last battle is specifically scripted to prevent you from winning too soon, which ended with me decimating the entire enemy army, then the last commander becoming invincible at half health and killing my units until the game finally ran its scripts, and let me kill him. The only battle you truly feel you lead your own combined army is the last one, and its a brief flirtation. The other major complaint is the stars of destiny seem...sidelined for this game. A full half are ones you get automatically through gameplay, and the rest are minor additions. I fully expect if I tried to beat this game with only the stars you get automatically, abusing the ones that are -very- powerful, the only major problem I would have would be the lack of blacksmithing over a certain point.

Still, as all my blogs tend to be, I write more about the little nitpicks than the overall good. I gave this a 4 star rating on my Backloggery, and would easily recommend it to anyone. Its a good game, whether you enjoy the series or not.

Completed: Dawn of War II - Retribution

Dawn of War II - Retribution

Completed

System: PC (Steam)
Status: Completed
Currently: Finally finished Extra Hard

Overall, I really liked this game, though looking back on it, I find it hard to recommend to others. The game itself is fairly good, though the single player campaign is definitely lacking.

It is worth playing once of course, the semi-RPG system to it keeps using the same heroes through multiple missions in a squad format interesting. Playing it more than once though, to do the different races definitely exposes issues with the game overall. The campaign is very short, and yet the different races really don't have a different campaign. The Space Marine campaign was clearly intended to be the main campaign and probably the canon one, and all the other campaigns follow the same missions, with minor differences. In essence, if you want to see every races ending, you need to beat the game six times, which means the same missions, same bosses, everything. The minor differences between the races alleviates it somewhat (the orks were notably fun due to their sense of humor), but they also highlight how unbalanced it is. I beat Extra Hard with the Tyrannids, mainly because they are clearly broken. You only get one hero, and their units are far more expensive in terms of resources, but they steamroll through every mission in the game very quickly.

Quickly is a debatable phrase though. The missions take forever to crawl through, since in essence after a point, your strategy is 'build the biggest units you can, roll to the next spot on the map, build more'. It may be a factor of my computer, but the loading times for some maps were utterly atrocious, and the unloading times were even more so. These two factors together mean you'll spend a lot of time going through the campaigns to do the same missions. The only factor that kept me from completing it much earlier is just how dull it gets to do the same missions over and over, and how long it takes.

The only thing I can really recommend (take note I have never even tried the standard multiplayer), is the Last Stand mode, where you team up with two other heroes and take on hordes of enemies, getting exp and wargear as you go. They realized this was probably the best part of the game, since you can buy that part as a stand alone. I would recommend that part of the game more than the overall, unless you are heavily interested in Warhammer. Its hard to recommend the main game over something like Starcraft 2 though. At least they finally got away from Games for Windows, which is the reason I didn't buy the first two packs of Dawn of War II.

Completed: Atelier Iris 2

Completed

Atelier Iris 2

System: PS2 (Playing on PS3)
Status: Completed
Currently: Finished everything.

So yeah, going to be a complete 180 on this from last time I posted, but I basically spent the last few weeks playing this solid (and Diablo 3), and at first, my hopes were rather high. The alchemy system in the game was very promising, the combat system was solid, they did a lot of things right in the game. The story wasn't the greatest, but it was passable.

Then the game just...died. The story went from passable to so full of glaring plot holes that I was yelling at the screen...to basically flipping the player off. The ending was a wonderful montage of 3 second clips that explained nothing whatsoever as to what happened, just showed the characters smiling then, roll credits. The game never followed through on any plot threads, and near the end of it, started doing things that just made me think 'Wow, my team is either stupid, or outright heinous'. It really does not make your team seem endearing when you destroy one character's wedding ring (albeit to save the world, but still), and then say he's being a baby because his wife will be mad at him. Two priceless objects (to the characters who they belonged to) are destroyed near the end, and its given about as much weight as stepping on someones toe. "Sorry for destroying this." "It does not matter, it was only a symbol to the entire kingdom." Practically quoted. The games story is so laughably paper thin you see where everything is going from the start, and any attempt at charecterization falls so flat it makes actually playing the game painful, because you know you'll have to listen to these idiots talk some more. Note to the creators, we do not need flashbacks for everything. This was a 20 hour game, there were upwards of ten flashbacks in the game, sometimes to events that happened literally five minutes before.

The combat system started out promising with all sorts of little options. Then as the game winded on, you realized rather quickly...that the designers didn't have any idea on how to make the game challenging, or to do a little difficulty curve to it. You are either curbstomping -everything- without grinding at all, or are up against something with insane amounts of HP. The post-game challenges seemed to be the most promising, but the enemies there (and the final boss) would basically one shot every character, so you learned to just keep tossing revives and not bother with healing. Most of the 'challenge' came from the fact that the bosses would heal themselves every turn naturally...which just made the fights even longer. I enjoy a good challenge, but the fights basically ended up being a challenge to see whether I would run out of revives first or win.

The item and alchemy system was by far the most promising part of it. Turning items you find into others with recipes you buy or find along the way. Certain items you could create more of with just mana, allowing you to make healing items as you go instead of buying them. The first thing you notice after a while though, is it is very trivial to just make 99 of all your healing items, and thus never run out. The second thing you notice is that everything pretty much uses the three or four most common mana types. The last thing you notice is there are about 15 types of mana, and some of them are used for one or two items. It felt like the designers just petered out on this part halfway through, and though you have tons of mana, you always need the most common ones, and almost never need everything else. The crafting system itself allows you to substitute different items to get different effects, but since most of the effects don't work on that item type, or are rather ill defined, you never really bother with this or even need to. The only time you do substitute is when the game points it out to you, and you realize you can make a truly different item...for the three or four items that actually works for.

The other aspects of the game are passable. The isometric view is interesting at first, but after a while you realize every dungeon is going to be square cubes going at angles, and it starts to look very fugly. The sprites themselves are well done, but battles are always zoomed out so far you can't see any details but for the brief moments it zooms in for an attack. The game is rather short, and that would have been fine personally, but near the end there's a very noticeable series of painful attempts to lengthen it out (fetch quests, dungeons with constant unending random encounters in a game that made a large point that after a while random encounters stop in an area, having to retread old areas constantly).

Most games leave me with a "Damn, I want to play more of that" feeling, even ones I'm somewhat ambiguous about. About six hours before I finished this game, I had the thought cross "I can't wait to finish this so I can play something else." While watching the ending, my thoughts were "Well, that is the game flipping me off." When I was finally finishing the post game, my last thought was "Thank god I never have to play this again."

Completed: Pokemon Leafgreen Version

Completed

Pokemon Leafgreen Version

System: Nintendo DS
Status: Completed!
Currently: Completed!

It is always a great thing to add another game to my list of completed. I may have to touch this again to send up starters, but I think you can get them and the other fossils in the other games without issues. I have kind of adjusted my views on this game, since I remembered it was the first remake, and the games were still working on a few things back at this point.

If you go back and play it now, yeah, it seems very bare bones. You can barely catch anything beyond the original 150, and the post game content consists of a few small islands with some Johto pokemon, Mewtwo of course, and the ability to rechallenge the Elite 4, and one of the legendary beasts from gen 2 wandering around. I did the islands yesterday, and the rest of that basically took this evening to finish up. The Elite 4 were actually rather challenging the second time around, the first time I curbstomped them.

Overall, its a mixed bag for the game, it clearly shows its age, and it lacks the refinements that the 4th gen games have, and also lacks the novelty of a new story and mons that the other 3rd gen games had. Overall, I would say pass on this unless you can find it rather cheap (hah), or you really want to get the legendaries associated with it (of which, I think only Mewtwo is unattainable elsewhere, could be wrong).