Game of the Month (01/10)

January is running out of days and I wanted to get this done before the end of the month, so here goes, my game of the month for Jan. 2010.

I should reiterate, my Game of the Month selections in this column of my blog aren't necessarily games that came out in that month, rather, they are timeless games, games that I believe didn't get much appreciation or enough attention or just really damn good games.

I absolutely love this game. 

Odin Sphere (PS2)

This is a 2D sidescrolling action RPG from Vanillaware, who brought us Muramasa (which a lot of people seemed to play.) It was released a few years ago, on the PS2 and saw pretty good reviews. 

Odin Sphere@Gamerankings

Odin Sphere@Metacritic

By no means is it a perfect game, I'd say it has a fair few flaws, but it is absolutely gorgeous, and is somewhat of a beacon for me-with this and Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii), Vanillaware show us that 2D games have not been made redundant with today's technology. Muramasa, for example, is probably the best looking game I have played on the Wii.

The game plays very much like an action rpg, its very fast paced and quite hard at times. It rewards you for chaining combos together, not letting your enemies get attacks in is crucial. For many people, it is quite a hard game. Myself, I am not particularly good at very fast paced games, and in this game, I was really grateful for the difficulty options. I had to turn it to easy for quite a few of the bosses (some of which can be very difficult, even on easy)

There is a lot to do in this game as well, it is very long, so you will get value for money. It might be a bit too long for people. I guess the combination of the difficulty, length and perhaps repetitive hack'n'slash nature of the game in general might put some people off. However, if you are able to stick through it, the story is incredible. I really cared about the characters, even though there isn't a huge amount of dialogue, cutscenes etc in which to develop the relationships between the characters. The ending, wow. I got the true ending and it is really moving.

So, who would this game appeal to? Well, if you liked Muramasa, this is very similar and I believe quite a bit better, so check it out. Other than that, if you like sidescrolling sprite based games like Metal slug or the Castlevania games, this has similarities to both series. 

Odin Sphere has some quite unique and interesting gameplay aspects, the Plants, food and cooking, Alchemy and the Psypher and Phozon system. Through these, you are able to level up both your HP and Psypher, so 'grinding' in this game is not how you might expect it to be. Its very fresh and fun. Hell, you can even grow sheep from certain seeds! =D

So, check this one out if you are interested. I had a lot of fun with the game, along with a fair share of frustration. Some bits are hard, but if you persevere, it shouldn't be impossible. Odin Sphere is my game of the month for January. 

Next I'll be posting a Now Playing on Sunday, and if I beat FFIX soon, I'll start working on a review of that.

Game of the Month. (12/09)

Its been a month or two since I last did a game of the month and thought I'd do something that isn't too old, but its still well worth checking out. Plus its not too hard to find, its usually quite cheap and on a current console. 

My passion for RPGs is something that is probably quite apparent from the posts on the blog, and this Game of the Month is another one. Probably most people have heard of this game, but I know that a lot of people haven't really given it a chance and it has been ignored in many cases, in favour of rpgs from bigger, more reknowned studios like Mass Effect, or Bethesda's Oblivion and Fallout 3 to a greater extent.

RPGs haven't really taken off on the 360 despite the couple releases each year, I think that is due to the demographic that plays games on the 360, maybe it is a bit of a stereotype, but I think that the 360 gamers are more keen on action games, hack n slash and shooters(FPS and 3rd person). Hopefully we still see decent RPGs like Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fallout 3 etc being released on the 360, and I hope we still see games like these being released and played.

Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360)

This got released not too long ago, in 2007 in Japan and early 2008 over here and elsewhere. It is from the people who made Blue Dragon-Mistwalker, which wasn't that well received, and from what I've heard, most people prefer this one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_odyssey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dragon

Gamerankings

So where to start? It is an RPG with admittedly a slightly cliched storyline at times, there is a lot of focus on memories and the main character's past. There are a few interesting twists and unique bits to the game though, the main character, Kaim Argonar, is an immortal and is trying to regain his memories. One thing I quite liked in the gameplay was the way that the mortal playable characters that join your party can learn skills by linking to the immortals. You can also learn skills from items obtained as you go through the game. There is a huge amount to find and do in the game. There are a LOT of skills, so it is good for completionists, and anyone else, as you can run through the game relatively quickly if you don't want to go into too much depth. I found myself putting in around 100 hrs before I beat the game, and I didn't download the DLC dungeons, so I can't really comment on that, how good it is or how much material it adds on.

The soundtrack is quite good as well, scored by Nobuo Uematsu. At times it adds a lot of atmosphere, but some of the tracks I wasn't entirely keen on, they seemed a bit unusual. I really love the world map music once it gets going though, here it is:

Some of the visuals are incredible actually, it does look really impressive. RPGs on the 360 are on the whole really good visually, I loved Eternal Sonata and Mass Effect, despite the numerous texture issues in the latter. So we aren't exactly spoiled for good looking RPGs this generation, but as I've always said, its not the graphics that make the game, they are an added bonus, but I look for a lot of aspects all to jump out at me when I look for games I like. In Lost Odyssey, the story is one of the main selling points, it is really emotionally charged at times, and very well written throughout.

One very cool added extra for those who don't mind a bit of reading is the Thousand Years of Dreams. I still haven't read all of these optional bits of story that get added to the main menu so you can read them when you want. If you like to read, you will be impressed by the quality of these bits of the back story of the characters and game.

 The battle system and gameplay as I touched on earlier, is quite good. Its nothing groundbreaking, but the minor tweaks to the formula of turn based battles and gameplay as a whole keep it interesting. 

The Target ring system is slightly reminiscent of Squall's gunblade trigger, you have to get your timing right to get a boost to damage and enable some effects from your character's equipped ring and weapon.

I quite liked the way they did the row wall system in battle. Depending on the combined current HP of your front row characters, your back row characters will be further protected if the front row is kept well healed, or more in danger if the front row is weakened. Quite a good way of quantifying the protection they get, you can tell how endangered you are. It adds another bit of strategy to it, so you can take this into account when thinking about what moves to make.

Turn based RPGs are seen by some as a thing of the past, but games like this I think show they still have a lot to offer.

So I would definitely recommend this, it is well worth a look if you haven't played it already. I think it will appeal to people who like their RPGs to have good epic, storylines or if you like a game with a heck of a lot to do, you won't be dissapointed with this one. You can probably pick it up for £10-20 at the moment.

Game of the Month. (09/09)

Argh, I've been trying to think of something to post for this, but nothing really jumped out at me. And now the last day of the month is here so I'm having to think of something. I dont like to force my mind to get its answers if I don't have to. They should appear to me. Also I've been quite busy with uni so I've not really had a chance to play games or post on the blog. Thats what I get for saying I would do weekly and monthly column posts....

Anyway, without further ado, I bring you my game of the month. Its a relatively new one, it got released earlier this year, or 2008 in Japan.

Pokemon Platinum (DS)

I was gonna do another DS rpg, but I've not really played any of them to death quite as much as this one. Its addictive, simple fun, with a ridiculous amount to do for your money. The main Pokemon games are one franchise I don't really mind paying full price for. I mean, to illustrate my point, I've got over 140 hours on my Platinum save, and I'm still not even quarter through the pokedex (roughly). My Diamond save has a stupid amount of time on it-over 390 hours of play time. Thankfully I've completed the pokedex and done almost everything in it. 

For those who don't know, the Pokemon games haven't really changed much since Red and Blue first came out a few years ago, but the addictive, simple team based monster-collecting rpg style game was always a very popular formula, so why change it? In my opinion, they have always improved them. Sure, they wont be for everyone, and the graphics and story aren't amazing, but I see a lot of good points for the Pokemon games on the DS.

The games have wi-fi play now, which is a great improvement on the last generation of games on the GBA-Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red and Leaf Green. The wifi in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum allows you to battle friends (you have to exchange the rather clunky friend codes first) and trade with others as well. There is an option in the GTS building to trade with people you dont know (and whose friend codes you dont need) but you can only get pokemon that are already on your pokedex ie. you've seen them or something.

What I always like about the pokemon games is that there is so much you can do depending on what things you like, training up pokemon for battles or contests, breeding pokemon, catching and trading for pokemon to work on your pokedex, now there are a whole load more of things, finding fossils and treasures in the underground (which can also be done multiplayer locally), testing yourself in the Battle Frontier (I think its called that in this one.)

Now, with remakes of the Game Boy colour games Pokemon Gold and Silver on the way (HeartGold and SoulSilver), its the perfect time to dig your DS games back out, or pick one up if you dont have any. Catch some pokemon, or transfer them from your GBA games to your DS ones with Pal Park and have some fun!

Oh, and if you have the game, and can get on wifi, you can download an event item, which before Platinum, you couldnt do. You could only really get the mystery gift type things from events if you actually went to them. You can get Oak's Letter between the 28th September and 8th November, which has something to do with catching Shaymin, I believe. I havent read much on it yet. See the official site for more news on that.

Official Site

Gamespot

Gamerankings

I'd recommend the game to people who like simple, addictive and fun games, and if you like the kinda game where there is lots to collect (little monsters in this case) then even better, I'm sure you'd love the game. There is a lot of depth to the Pokemon games as well, if you read around the web. There are lots of hidden values and indicators which people have discovered from picking the games apart and playing them to death. The good thing is, not everyone needs to delve that deep if they dont want to.

Game of the Month. (08/09)

Something I've been wanting to try out for a while now is a series of posts where I'll try recommending a game each month. I'm going to try focussing on games I've really enjoyed for being different, unique, unknown or just really damn enjoyable for whatever reasons.

So first up for the month of August 09' is American McGee's Alice (PC.) Published in 2000 by EA and designed by American McGee and Rogue Entertainment, this is a dark, macabre retelling of the Alice in Wonderland tales by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson or more commonly known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll in which the world has been corrupted by her mind and insanity. The game plays with many aspects of the first and third person shooter, action/adventure, platformer and survival horror genres.

I think you'd like this game if you are at all interested in the Alice in Wonderland theme or the dark style of some of Tim Burton or Guillermo Del Toro films. On a slight tangent, look out for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie coming in 2010. I'm looking forward to that for sure! =p

As for similar games, I really can't think of many. Its one of those really unique games that we are seeing less of nowadays unfortunately. Perhaps the Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver games, they were platformer/action games with really interesting settings behind them. I don't know much about platformers, but I like the depth and story behind those games. 

The game has been released in the original packaging and also reprinted a few times by various budget lines ie. Sold Out Software in EU regions. The original is a bit harder to track down-expect to pay at least £20 for that. 

Some links, the first of which is an announcement from earlier this year about a sequel to American McGee's Alice on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Woot!

American McGee's Blog announcement

Wikipedia

Gamerankings

Gamespot

I loved the original American McGee's Alice despite not finishing it. It has such an awesome dark, twisted style to it. I'd definitely recommend the original game and apparantely it works on both Windows XP and Vista as well as older OS's. There is also a seperate Mac version out there. 

Anyway, I've run out of things to say as my brain has turned to mush. Its getting late now...

I hope to bring you more Game of the Month posts in the future. They won't necessarily be on new games, they will be based on the strengths and merits of the games and how much I like them. A true gaming gem in my opinion never ages to the point that it is unplayable. Hopefully you guys can pick up some of the games I'm going to talk about and experience games you might not have tried before. Enjoy!