Category: Video Games

Droppin’ addendums

I have a couple things to add to previous posts from this week, and no better time to do it because I don’t really have anything else to say today.

Firstly, and most importantly, you can quick turn in MegaMan Legends! While not as intuitive as the quick turn in Resident Evil games (pressing down+run), it offers more fexibility by letting you quick turn in any direction! I say less intuitive because in RE games you’re always pressing the run button anyway, but the circle button in MML is for talking to people and opening doors/chests. Now that I think about it though, MML doesn’t have a run button and the next most logical choice is the context sensitive button. So forget everything I typed here except for the “I was wrong there is quick turn” bit.

I don’t know which one it is, but I’m sure somewhere there’s a game where the quick turn is pressing both shoulder buttons? Maybe I dreamed it?

Secondly, I tallied up the amounts of songs that I like in Rock Band 2 and LEGO Rock Band. Just because I didn’t feel comfortable rounding up the amount of crappy songs in LRB to “about half.” And what I came up with is that I like 19 of the 45 songs, which means that in reality, 58% percent of the songs in LEGO Rock Band are crappy. Not really enough of a difference to justify the time it took to do the math. Whatever.

I did the same count for Rock Band 2, and amazingly I like 63% of the songs on that disc. Which is surprising to me, because when I think about RB2’s setlist, I can only think of the boring-ass garbage on it like “Float On,” “PDA” and “Feel the Pain”. So I guess if you’ve heard me dissing on RB2’s setlist, just disregard it because I apparently like it quite a bit more than I thought.

P.S. I like roughly 30% of the tracks in Band Hero. And that’s being generous.

Holder of Legends

My family was down in the States last week, and I’d given them a short list of things to pick up for me while they were down there. It was mostly Peanut Butter Crunch and Mountain Dew Throwback, but at the very end, I snuck a note on there asking them to check out the used game shops for either MegaMan Legends game. I wasn’t expecting much, because I’ve been prowling the local shops for years now. Lo and behold, the ol’ family came through for me.

So now I’m the proud owner of a legitimate copy of MegaMan Legends. It doesn’t have the proper jewel case, but I can fake that if it ever starts to bother me. It’s been a few years since I played it in earnest, so I’d forgotten just how strange the control scheme is. I was a little worried about how MegaMan Legends 3 would control on the 3DS, but my fears have been assuaged now that I know they certainly couldn’t have gotten any less functional. It’s all moot though, because that game was cancelled.

I think the most jarring thing to me is that there is no quick-turn button/button combination. I don’t think it was introduced into the Resident Evil series until the GameCube remake, but I have lingering memories of there being such a technique in MML. Maybe I’m thinking about the sequel? Maybe there is a quick turn and I don’t know how because I don’t have the manual? It would be really handy though. S’all I’m sayin’.

On the other hand, I’ve been doing pretty well for myself so far. Near the beginning of the game, there’s a huge robot boss whose weaponry can destroy the surrounding buildings. One of the sub-quests later in the game is to grind up the money to donate towards rebuilding the city. Usually the costs are pretty high, but I managed to end up losing only two of the smaller buildings on this run, which is significantly better than I remember doing on any previous playthroughs. So, I guess I’m getting the hang of the funky controls again.

There’s a second phase in the Northern section of the city that works the same way. Only this time there are a handful of smaller robots which are far more interested in demolition than self-preservation, and three of which fly around and spawn new robots. Also the buildings are spread out a bit more, forcing you to run back and forth across the map in a vain attempt to save what you can. Needless to say, that part never works out too well for me.

It’s a great joy to drop back into the MegaMan Legends world though. Kattleox Island is such a vibrant place, with little flourishes all over the place to keep explorers happy. Maybe they’re as simple as a poster with a pig and chicks on it that says “Don’t kick us!” (which ties into Legends 2), or as unexpected as a lone Servbot hanging out on a roof. And the characters! The voice acting doesn’t exactly shine, but it certainly has the same memorable quality as the original Resident Evil does, just without most of the cheesiness. At worst, Capcom had programmers/translators who wanted to do voice acting do it this time around.

In the end, I think it’s mostly the fact that I can appreciate this game for what it was in its time. Mechanically, it doesn’t hold up as well as I’d like to say, but it certainly makes up for that lack with a compelling game and story underneath those outdated levers and pulleys. I still love the game, and I’m relishing the chance to really get into it again.

Destiny calls me

Okay internet, I need something new. I have finished Scibbe.com.

“But Ryan, how can you finish a website? And a blog at that?” you might ask. I would proceed to wonder why you would ask such a silly question, because the only way that I can imagine that anyone could conceivably finish a blog would be to read all the archives. And that, I have done. A lofty task considering that Brickroad had a pretty consistent 5-posts-a-week thing going on since February aught-nine.

It’s true, I skipped all the “Crystalis the Lovable Warlock” posts and still need to catch up on all the vlogs and LPs, so I haven’t 100%ed it, but I’ve read everything that interested me, and now I need something new. So if you know of any gamer blogs that read half-decently and contain a few posts about other things, let me know. Basically, I want to read my blog, but by someone else. Oh, and long posts are always a plus. I have a lot of downtime to fill with fluffy online entertainment.

Also, maybe go check out Scibbe.com. At least the “13 Weeks of Final Fantasy” feature and the “Memoirs of the Peemeister” posts. There’s plenty of great (or at least mildly interesting) content there, but those are the ones I feel shone the brightest.

Lace up your shoes

So Guitar Hero games are dirt cheap now. What better opportunity to pick up GH: Van Halen? I’m still angry because I should have gotten it for free, but $10 is a reasonable price to pay for a game I’ll get at least a few hours of enjoyment out of. Also I <3 Van Halen.

I can’t decide whether it’s more impressive than the GH:Van Halen being $10, but LEGO Rock Band has also plummeted down to $5, so I grabbed that too. It’s just like Rock Band except with more collectible crap! Someone knew exactly what kind of game I want to play!

The downside here is that some jackhole at… Harmonix maybe?… decided that all the music had to be kid-friendly, so 90% of my DLC does not work when playing on the LEGO RB disc. It’s not the worst thing that could happen, but some of the songs they chose to not allow bend my mind. Out of the ten Queen songs I have, only four are playable. This is double weird because the crux of story mode is that your LEGO avatar has been inspired to start a band after seeing (LEGO) Queen perform. And “The Boys are Back in Town” isn’t allowed? It was good enough for Toy Story 2, but not LEGO Rock Band? Harmonix must have brought in the most bored, angry soccer-moms they could find to make the cuts. The one upside here is that it removes almost all of the ludicrously difficult songs, so random setlists aren’t so terrifying anymore.

The setlist on the disc isn’t exactly stellar either. It’s head and shoulders above the tripe they were pushing in Band Hero, but about half of it is still crap. Really, does anybody actually like Counting Crows? Looking at it in a more positive light though, a DLC pack of three songs would cost slightly more than this disc did. Yeah, the price will double if I choose to import the songs to Rock Band 2, but it’s still way more cost-effective in the long run.

That sun won’t shine

This morning, I hit 100 consecutive days of playing Dissidia: Final Fantasy. That, combined with the time I’ve been logging in Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together probably makes my PSP my most often used video game system. If you’d suggested such a fact to me five years ago, I probably would have kicked your teeth in. With words, of course.

Despite my obvious obsession, I still have a lot to accomplish in the game before I feel comfortable moving onto the sequel. My current goal is to earn the “get every character to level 50” accomplishment, which is not so bad with the good guys, but it’s a slow, boring grind to get all the villains up past L30. Once you hit that point though, it’s pretty smooth sailing. Oddly, I never thought that I would feel that a fighting game had too many fighters to choose from.

Now it’s time to party

I was very excited last week when I heard that the Catherine demo was available for my enjoyment. Alas, it was for Gold members only, so I was stuck waiting for it until… Tuesday I think? In any case, it’s available to the general public now, so I downloaded that.

Let me start by saying that I was interested in Catherine before it was cool. Because I’m super hip. The kids over at Talking Time were all abuzz about it when the first trailer was announced, because it seemed to be a Shin Megami Tensei spinoff of some sort. SMT, and the Persona games in particular, are a big thing over there, so a sexy spinoff was big news. Turns out it has little to do with SMT, and is not even branded as part of the series, but after playing it I can see that there are a few similarities.

Catherine is a puzzle game. Technically it is a falling block game, but not in the “match-three” way that falling block games are. In this one, you must climb a tower made of blocks before they fall out from under you. It’s a little more complicated than that, but such is the basic premise of the gameplay. Also, there is a story that plays out in between the tower-climbing. And this is where it parallels SMT, or Persona 3, at least. During the daytime, you walk around and talk to people, affecting your relationships with them as you go. And then at nighttime, it’s tower climb time. This is the same formula that P3 follows, except that in that game there is an RPG instead of puzzles during the night segments. Again, that’s a very basic summary, but it gets my point across.

After playing the demo, I’m not only interested in Catherine because the Talking Time crew told me to be, but mostly because if you ignore the fact that it is not technically a Persona game, it’s a Persona game I can play. I really would like to get into the series, but from what I’ve heard, they seem to have an issue with requiring perfection. Having to memorize enemy weaknesses and switch up your party all the time to take advantage of them is a little more than I want to deal with in a standard RPG. In a tactical RPG? Sure, that’s part of the genre’s charm. But coming off of Final Fantasy XIII, where your characters learn weaknesses and exploit them automatically, having to tweak your characters/party for each encounter? Too much work.

So Catherine here, the other reason I want to get into it is because the social element and story really interest me. Your social interactions appear to have an effect on how the story plays out, even if it just results in whether your character (Vincent) picks the blond (Catherine) or the brunette (Katherine) in the end, it looks like it’ll be a fun ride. Of course, me being me, I’d definitely do everything to rope Vince into marrying his longtime girlfriend. It’s nice to feel like you have that choice, anyway.

I do want to play the full game, but I’m wondering if it’ll be worth the entry price. $60 is an awful lot for someone with so little disposable income to pay for a game about climbing blocks. I’m sure that I’ll enjoy the daytime segments and the story more than enough to justify the price. It’s hard to say whether I’d play it more than once though. Maybe it’d make a good birthday gift? It is only a month and a half away… Then again, I did play Silent Hill: Shattered Memories several times, and that game was even less about gameplay than Catherine is. I suppose it’ll probably boil down to whether I have enough self-control to avoid buying it or not, though I know how guilty I’ll feel if I do. Huh. Listen to me ramble about finances. Not exactly the most entertaining thing to blog about. Point is, the demo is good, but not $60 good.

In a related story, I’m highly considering getting SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked for 3DS next month. This one is a tactical RPG, so that’s perfect! I love tactical RPGs! Which reminds me, the PSP port of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together has been sitting on my floor unopened for at least a month now. Probably should put Dissidia down for a while and start hacking away at that.

(At this point, you’re likely trying to reason out exactly why I think I need to buy more video games.)

It started somewhere in my chest

Hmmm… Updates are coming fairly often these last couple weeks, aren’t they? This could be trouble. But at least I’m getting my thoughts out of my head and onto paper, unimportant though they may be. I mean, almost everything I’ve blogged over the last few months has been about video games. What happened to my ability to blog about slightly less stupid things? Not that Marshmallow Mateys or girls with fake blue eyes are much more interesting. So I’ll try to come up with more random/entertaining things to post. In the meantime, vidja games!

I bought the Bit.Trip Runner soundtrack on iTunes a while back (like… January?), and the game itself before that, but I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned them here. Which is a shame, because they’re just the best.

Well, that’s a mouthful, but Runner is definitely a solid game, and it’s a real shame that I don’t really play it. I guess that might have something to do with the steep difficulty curve, but that in and of itself might only be a problem because I have a big stupid ape brain. The game is about learning button cues and having the reflexes to execute them in different orders at different speeds. It’s laid out as a man running across various terrain, with a multitude of objects that will impede his progress. Every object requires a different action. For example, you simply jump over small obstacles like rocks and elevated ground, but there are two coloured balls that fly at you in a wave pattern. One will always end up high, which you have to slide under, and one will always go low, which requires a jump. It’s your job to remember which colour goes high and which goes low.

Really, the game is essentially a guitar (or any other kind of rhythm game, for that matter) game, except your notes are obstacles instead of a cue that literally tells you which button to press. And the rhythm game comparison goes even farther than that, because every action makes sound effect that mesh in with the music. There are two types of collectibles scattered throughout each stage: gold and powerups. The gold is just a “try to get them all” thing, so it can be safely ignored. The powerups mostly just boost your score, but they also carry the much cooler benefit of altering the background music, layering on additional melodies and instruments every time you pick one up, which is a super cool effect.

As I mentioned before, the failing here is that the game is hard. Like, I was “stuck partway through world one” hard. Only after playing that particular stage for hours did I manage to memorize it well enough to make it through. Now I’m almost to the end of the third world and hit another brick wall. It’s still a fun game, but you can only fail the same stage so many times before you move onto something you can be more successful at. The nice thing is that while even a nudge from an obstacle will halt your progress, it really only rewinds you. Commander Video is sent back very quickly to the beginning of the stage, and you’re back up and running after a short countdown. No “you lose” screens, no waiting for the level to re-load. It’s all very snappy in pace, and I love that.

Did I mention how much I love the music? I think I might have, but it bears repeating. Man I love the music in this game.

I highly recommend giving Bit.Trip Runner a shot. It’s the only Bit.Trip game that I’ve found compelling enough to try, and I’m glad I did. Even Stephanie had trouble putting it down the one time I made her play it. It’s available on WiiWare ($8) and Steam ($??), and if those are too expensive, there’s a game on the App Store called Action Hero which is a very simplified version of the same game style. I’m sure there are other ones too, but Bit.Trip Runner stands head and shoulders above the rest, if only because its music meshes in with the gameplay so nicely and transparently. Plus the bonus stages are based on Pitfall!, so that’s pretty rad.

Gimme the honky tonk blues

MegaMan Legends 3 was cancelled yesterday. This is absolutely heart-wrenching news for me for a lot of reasons. Obviously, because I’m a MegaMan fanboy (though I’ve been somewhat less vocal about that recently), but also because that’s the 3DS game I was waiting for. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s the reason I bought my 3DS, but it would likely have been reason #2 if I had an enumerated list of reasons why I bought the machine.

It’s also sad because the Legends series is far and away my favourite incarnation of MegaMan. The platformers are great and all, but not one classic MegaMan game had the charm and personality that Legends exuded. MegaMan Powered Up! certainly tried, but even with its cutesy style, it still lacked the pure soul that makes Legends so unique.

While the graphics in the Legends games are blocky, they still look damn spiffy for PS1 games. Hell, these games are partly defined by their colourful palettes and Miyazaki-esque art direction. There wasn’t exactly a great wealth of PS1 games that made such good use of so few polygons. Not to mention that the characters’ faces were all fully animated in cutscenes. It’s not so impressive today, but was definitely a Big Deal in 1997. The only other game I can think of that had complex facial animations (defined here as more than a hinged jaw) in that generation was Turok 3, and that was in 2000. I’m sure there were more, but those are the only two that spring to mind.

Moreso than the graphical prowess though, the characters and worlds really popped and brought the games to life. Every major character in MegaMan Legends (the first) is lovable. I could go on to describe all that in great detail here, but why do so when there is a perfectly good article already written about the same subject?

Point is, Capcom may have figured it was a lost cause because all that matters is profit, but I think it would have been a fantastic game. The people working on it were committed to the project, and there was a fairly huge community surrounding and supporting it. It likely wouldn’t have been a million-seller, but maybe it would have been the 3DS game to own. Now we’ll never know. And we’ll never have closure to that cliffhanger ending in MegaMan Legends 2. Goddammit.

Just sleep

I was going to write a post yesterday ranting about my lack of sleep and how I hate being tired all the time. It’s good that I didn’t get it finished though, because it was really stupid and I spent most of it blaming everyone else for sucking up all my free time. And that would make me a dick. What it really boiled down to was that if I want to watch FullMetal Alchemist or play Half-Minute Hero, I have to do it in the time I should be using to sleep. This causes problems for me in the way of me being exhausted all day long, but it’s still my choice, and I consistently choose leisure over a proper rest.

In actual news, I played the Duke Nukem Forever demo. Glad I did too, because I don’t see anything there worth picking up the full version for. Firstly, the gameplay is not Duke Nukem. Maybe the full version is different, but in the demo the levels are pretty linear. No exploring or backtracking necessary. I suppose that kind of game design is outdated, but I’d really prefer if you kept your Halo out of my Duke Nukem, please. It would have been much better if Gearbox had just dressed up Borderlands in a Duke skin. Everybody likes Borderlands.

The other -and possibly more important- thing that threw me off was the difficulty level. Maybe the demo stage is at the end of the game or something, but I chose easy mode and still died every time I encountered enemies. I’m pretty sure I don’t suck at FPSes, because I don’t die all the time in Borderlands or… okay, so that’s the only real FPS I’ve played in recent memory, but I don’t suck at it!

The good things about it were… nothing. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but there surely wasn’t anything that impressed me. I kind of liked that you can see Duke’s body when he falls down or you look where his feet should be, as opposed to other FPSes where you’re a disembodied hand. That little detail is something I want to see in every FPS from now on. It really should have been standardized years ago. Other than that, I suppose the full version promises boobies, but that’s not a good reason to buy a game. Last time I bought a game because of boobies, I ended up with God of War, which I found so incredibly boring that I didn’t even suffer through half the game before I traded it in. So yeah, Duke demo did not impress me, and I’m glad that I wasn’t one of those people hyped up for the game enough to buy it blind on launch day. I’ll stick to Duke Nukem 3D, thank you very much. Or even better, one of the old side-scrolling Duke games.