Sunday, August 8, 2010

Now Playing - "I sound like a sign"

So I played a bunch of stuff over the last few weeks, I was away on holiday in France for 2 and a bit weeks and then played some during this week. But I've got some complicated stuff going on so haven't put a lot of time into any one game at the moment.

Pokemon SoulSilver (DS) I played this all the way through from the start of my holiday and planned from the beginning that I would go for a mono-water team. It was much easier than I thought actually, with Pokemon like Quagsire to keep my Electric weaknesses at bay. It wasn't quite as good as I remember Silver to be, but thats probably because I haven't been much into the games recently, and only picked this up for lack of a better game to take away on holiday with me. Still, there is tonnes to do as before, which is good. And they have added some things and made some adjustments here and there. But to be honest, I had to actually force myself to get through certain parts. It wasn't quite as enjoyable as I would have liked, but still a pretty good game, and I had fun doing this challenge. I have all 16 badges now and got a fair chunk of the dex filled in, but I won't be going back to this one for a while. I go through periods of playing pokemon and staying far away, so I'm either in the staying away phase, or completely sick of the series in general. I did say I would stay away from the competitive scene completely as it has consumed way too much of my time. Then again, there is a Yugioh TCG/Pokemon DS tournament on Tuesday that some friends are going to. I'm still debating going to this and playing some pokaymans, but I don't really want to be the only one older than 12 at it.


Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP) I've put around 3 or 4 hours into this, when I was away in France and got to the 2nd chapter I think, but a lot of the stuff is really poorly explained I think. I didn't realise the significance of the traits and hero values each character could get until the end of the chapter when I was told that we would be surely doomed if things didn't improve or something to that effect. Anyway, that kinda turned me off so I wanted to restart when I actually knew about the gameplay mechanics. Its very..obscure some of the stuff in this. I will go back to it at some point, but its more or less on hold for now. I also didn't realise weapons could break, and I ended up unknowingly breaking one of the valuable weapons you get early on. I need to get a decent FAQ or fan site for this which will explain some shit for me...

Etrian Odyssey (DS) I played this for a bit more on the way back from holiday (and on the bus going to get DQIX) after which, well it got neglected hehe... I do like this game, but it is pretty damn hard. That is one of the things that makes it really rewarding though. I'm working through it slowly. Think I'm getting near the end of the first stratum~I'm on the 4th floor and I think I'm well levelled enough..but then FOEs come along and rape my face >< ...Hehe...awesome game. Check it out if you like hardcore dungeon crawlers. You can have a team of lolis! XD Pretty cool site for EO fans& players

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS) I've been playing this most of all recently, and I've got past the stage where you get the vocation changing at Alltrades Abbey and done the dungeon after that to beat Lleviathan. I'm really enjoying taking my time with it, picking up sidequests and working on the Item list and getting Alchemy recipes and materials. There is a lot to do, in whatever way you want to really. And a lot of it is definitely optional, I know a few people who have already breezed through the main story (as I'm quite a bit behind-I had to wait till a week after the PAL release to start T_T) and they've said mixed things, its good but not brilliant, that the story drags a bit and lots of other stuff. But I'm definitely enjoying it so far. I might review this or Demon's Souls in the future if I can find time. Definitely looking forward to playing more of this. I just went on the in game marketplace for 'DLC' today and got a few items and quests added to my game..well thats not strictly true. All the DLC is actually on the cart, you just need to wait to be able to activate it on the DQVC when they allow you. V_V

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (DS) I finally finished this off a few weeks ago just before I left for France. Its pretty cool, with some points that really amazed me with their ingenuity. I was really impressed with the puzzle where you had to shut the ds screens in order to transfer a map to something. Little things like that, along with the pretty tight stylus controls and nice visuals were what I liked about this. The main thing I didn't like was what most people complain about, the Temple of the Ocean King. Its a big long dungeon which you keep coming back to throughout the course of the story once you have certain plot items. At the end you are able to get right to the bottom and progress to the final stages of the game. It is timed, which I hated..so stressful ><>

Tales of Eternia (PSP) I don't think I talked about this last time but I finished it before I went away on holiday a few weeks back. I slowly started to like it more as I went through, but still a lot of things annoyed me about it. The characters were fairly boring and annoying in places. The art style hasn't aged well at all-its one of the uglier looking games I've seen. Although some bits in game are quite nice-there are lots of FMVs and the battles look pretty good. I did some of the optional stuff but really I have no desire to 100% this game, definitely not. I didnt bother to scan or steal from enemies the entire game. Overall, I'd say its worth what I payed for it, around £12, but unless you are a big Tales fan, you might be slightly dissapointed with it. Don't go paying large amounts to import it unless you are definitely sure. (I'm in the EU, so didn't need to import this one which didnt make it to the US.)

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) I played this a bit more the other day, and worked on improving my mission ratings up to 5 star. Eventually after some nasty ones, I got all the ones that needed it improved to 5 stars for the Trophy. I still have a fair chunk to do though for the last one. I need quite a bit of money and some Dark Matters (I'm not sure how easy or hard they are to obtain yet) to upgrade weapons and accessories. I've put it back on the shelf for now though, as I'm playing through another PS3 game...

Demon's Souls (PS3) I'm slowly working through this one, I finally got to the stage where my Royal Mage has enough strength to wield my Compound Long Bow 2 handed! So I can grind pretty well in 4-2 against those Manta fucks and the Reaper dude on the stairs. I'm up around Soul lv46 or so now I think, about 20 hours in. Its hard to tell what level you should be at for each stage though, and in which order you should do them. I have the guide book that came with the Black Phantom Edition of the game, and of course the awesome http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/home but for someone who hasn't finished the game yet, it can be intimidating in places. I think once I get into the game enough though, I can have the required level of patience, as I've solo'd each of the stages and not had too many problems with the bosses. It more or less getting the enemies attack patterns down and not getting owned by ridiculous traps or cliffs or stuff that takes time. Its a really cool game this one. So many unique and interesting things to do with this, the seamless multiplayer and online support for one. Check it out if you have a PS3 (and are up for a challenge!)

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