Now Playing - "be a good little sacrifice now!"

I've been putting in more time to Suikoden Tierkreis (DS) the past week or two. I don't usually follow guides the first time I go through a game. Or if I do, I try not to over-rely on them..anyway, something about my first foray into the Suikoden series meant I needed to loosely follow one and that is the recruitment in the games. They typically have 108 characters you can recruit, known as the Stars of Destiny. So I've been trying to get all of them but I missed one which you had to get at one point in the story, and that meant I couldnt get another because the first one, Wustum is a prerequisite for the other character. This was like..25 hrs in to the game, and I had actually considered restarting so I could get all 108 and the good ending, but meh...I can't be bothered doing it all again. I'm slowly working through this, its a fun game, but has a fair bit of glitches and problems, one being the fact that it is WAY too easy. I haven't died once yet, around 30 or so hours in. Still, I am really liking the story, its unravelling slowly, but keeping me interested. There is a huge amount of dialogue and I think the story is quite cool so far. I've got a bad feeling it is gonna be really predictable though. 

I was having a look round the PSN store the other day and realised that there is quite a bit of DLC for the Disgaea games, some of which is free for the 2nd game. So I guess I was inspired to play it to snag the DLC while it was free(I reckon the 2 initial characters will actually remain free though.) I was intending to keep this game to play on holiday, but I started up Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days (PSP). I was a big fan of the first game-I played the psp version and was really impressed with the voice acting, humour, craziness and depth to the srpg battles and customisation. There is usually tonnes to do in Disgaea games as well, and the 2nd one is definitely no exception to that. I'm a couple hours in so far and it seems that there is a little more to do than the first game (but I can't be sure yet)-you've got the Item World, Dark Assembly, Felonies, Dark World, DLC characters, Geo Panels, Magichange, Transmigration, Apprentices Extra Gain and many other facets to the game. There are so many ways to make your characters stronger and so many things to do in this game. Story-wise, it hasn't impressed me as much as the first game: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness/Afternoon of Darkness/Disgaea DS so far at least. Although, I am only on episode 4 or so. It may well improve..I reckon its gonna be predictable though. The characters for me aren't quite as cool as Laharl and Etna-they were hard to top. Adell-the main character is a bit too cheesy. He's kinda reminding me of Snow from FFXIII and some others that I can't remember. He's sort of a cliche "I fight for my family and never give up!" kinda guy. Rozalin is a bit more interesting, she's pretty sadistic and pompous but with what looks like a soft side (*cough*Laharl*cough*). I find myself laughing at her lines more than the main character's so far. Axel is sort of funny as well, in a pathetic kind of way.

Recently I had a bit of an urge to play some Castlevania games, and after listening to some of the music on youtube while I studied, I picked up Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PSP) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) at the recommendation of some backloggers (onion and wenchwogg)

I actually got all the way through the original Rondo of Blood on the Dracula X Chronicles collection on psp in 2 days. It can be a hard game, but if you make sure and unlock Maria, it becomes a LOT easier. Some say it takes all the challenge out of the game..I guess it does kind of. Still, pretty good game, there are some nice aspects to it. Its got the hardcore platformer feel of the older Castlevania games to it, a good soundtrack and some pretty smooth graphics depending on what version you play of it. I definitely enjoyed the remake but for some reason that one got me stuck for long periods of time more than the original one did. Perhaps it is a bit harder, or maybe it is because I remembered how to beat a lot of the bosses second time round. Anyway, you are definitely getting a good deal when you buy Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles-it has the remake of Rondo of Blood and you can unlock Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night (perhaps worth buying it alone for SotN)

I'm considering playing Curse of Darkness soon, and possibly picking up Lament of Innocence to fill another hole in my Castlevania 'collection.' I lack a lot of the consoles needed to play the older games, but I've still got a fair few of the games. Hopefully I'll get some of the older ones some time, I'll have a look on the Wii's Virtual Console soon perhaps.

I've been wanting to pick up a couple more artbooks, get more into collecting them. Reckon its Disgaea inspiring me as always, I love the character designs. There are a couple Disgaea artbooks and game guides out there, and one Etrian Odyssey one I want. Its an expensive interest though.