Pokemon Black 2: The Chronicles of Izalith #3

Previously I forgot to talk about my team at the end of the post, so I suppose I'll do it here. I actually got my first evolution. My starter pokemon, Oshawatt [Barioth] evolved at the randomly odd level of 17. Bit of a stat boost and a nice physical water move to boot.
So now, just after Gym 2, the team is Growlithe [Ghost] lv13, Magnemite [Iron Giant] lv16, Riolu [Genji] lv13, Purrloin [Dusk] lv14, Dewott [Barioth] lv17. I have a few that are a bit lower because they suck in battle they are recent additions and in the case of the Riolu, I'm trying to put levelling off as much as I can so it gains happiness and can evolve quicker, thus missing out on less moves when it evolves to Lucario early.

After the second badge, you get kind of roped into doing some weird story scenes at the Pokestar Studio where they make movies. I never really understood this bit, it just seems a bit random and out of place. They've never done anything like this before in Pokemon games (as far as I can remember), and I don't see the point in it here. I did some reading and it is a sort of side quest/puzzle thing to the game and there are guides on it and everything. But at this point in the story, you need to make a movie and put up with these dialogue scenes to get familiarised with the whole thing.

Cool cutscenes bring us to Castelia City, and if I remember rightly, theres a lot to do here/lots of places to get lost. There are some pretty cool battles against NPCs in the various buildings in this city, and it took me a while to track them down follow a guide and finish them off.

I actually hated the Castelia City sewers the first time I attempted to play through the games. Nothing but dual encounters with your rival against wild pokemon like Zubats, Rattatas, Grimers. Pretty boring stuff, and I think its all first gen stuff. *Checks* Yeah, more or less: Link
But this time around I decide to use some of the Repels I found on my Pick Up Lillipup to map out this rather confusing area, and then take some time to grind using the Exp Share and the fact that your rival heals you fully after each battle, its a really good opportunity to gain some levels at this stage.

I managed to get an Eevee in the Castelia Garden thing that you can access after the Castelia Sewers events, and named it Sylph, but I'm not sure if it will stay in my team long term, but I'm taking it along to try and max out it's happiness. So before the gym leader battle, my team is Magnemite [Iron Giant] lv20, Growlithe [Ghost lv20], Purrloin [Dusk] lv19, Dewott [Barioth lv20], Lucario [Genji] lv20 and Eevee [Sylph] lv19. Dat Lucario evolution at lv15, yeah!

Gym #3 - Bug

This guy's sprite really creeps me out...but anyway, his first pokemon is Swadloon lv22. Underlevelled for this gym then, great...I lead off with Magnemite and Thunder Wave to cut his speed like a boss. I switched in Growlithe to go for Intimidate and then hit it with super effective moves, but because he was weakened, Razor Leaf critted and killed him -_- Thankfully I have a Revive and some healing items. I manage to take it out with a few attacks from a couple of my Pokemon. Then his next pokemon is a Dwebble lv22, I water gun him and it looks like it is about to oneshot but Sturdy activates, leaving it on 1HP...This is a problem, as Dewott lost a bit too much health from the Dwebble's rock type attack. This thing has really intriguing typing actually, I might have to consider getting a Dwebble for my team, or that Crocodile thing. Lucario worked quite well it turned out, Force Palm and Counter taking it out over a few turns. The next pokemon is a Leavanny lv24, something I remember can be really annoying, strong and fast for a grass pokemon, so I decided to go with the Magnemite, Iron Giant, Thunder Waving it to cut its speed and then Sonic Booming. I wanted to chip away at its HP so that if he wanted to use a healing item, he'd waste it against this, and if I decided to switch in Ghost, he'd be safe to one or two shot it with a Fire move, but Sonic Boom constantly+parahax(lol)+Leavanny deciding to use String shot meant Iron Giant could take him out pretty easily. So thats badge 3 obtained!

So there is a poison and then a bug gym? Unusual choices, but I suppose they work quite well. At this point, fire types and flying types have been fairly readily available, so the game does give you options against these gyms. And I may be wrong, but it looks like they wanted to try different types out for the gyms that they haven't used much previously.

Protip #3 - Its simple, but recognise the (strengths and) weaknesses of your team members. If one isn't pulling its weight, consider grinding it up some more levels. It may be about to learn a move that will help a lot, it may be about to evolve eg. Gyarados will become exponentially more useful on evolution. Check the stats of the pokemon, if a pokemon is low on physical attack, special moves will perhaps be better choices (assuming the special attack is higher.) If you come across something that looks better stats wise/movepool wise, consider changing team members.


Play Time - 27:48
Pokedex - Obtained: 24, Seen: 45
Gym Badges - 3

Up next:

Pokemon Black 2: The Chronicles of Izalith #2

So I thought it'd be a bit longer before I brought another one of these posts, but the distance between the first and second badge is really quite short. I still believe the pacing is a bit off. Excessive grinding against low level enemies in the Ranch that I talked about last time. Then backtracking (something I don't usually mind, but it just seems a bit out of place in Pokemon games.) to get to the first gym. The enemies seem quite difficult around the first and second badge area as well. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, I don't know. For example, the Magnemite I talked about last time...but I'll get to that later.
After seeing that the first gym battle represented a bit of a ramp up in difficulty, I started to remember the patch of grass that they tell you about after you pass the Hiker on the first or second route. Its a different kind of grass, long grass or dark grass or something. Anyway, apparantely stronger enemies appear there often. Yeah they weren't kidding, Sewaddle and some other bug and grass types, with what seemed like really high capture rates. I struggled at this point quite a bit, and had to take a few runs of capturing and running back to heal in order to get most of the new pokemon in this long grass. I didn't bother adding any of these Pokemon to my team, however. I'm not a huge fan of Sunkern or Sewaddle. I do like Venipede/Whirlipede/Scolipede though. It is one of my favourite designs from this generation. But poison types never seem to offer much later on in the game in my opinion. Although I think I have used a Toxicroak recently, in my X playthrough (super effective damage against the new Fairy types.)

So on getting to Virbank City, I tried grinding a bit and doing the events at the Virbank Complex. If I remember rightly, there are some good pokemon to be found here. I added some potential pokemon to my group actually. Initially a Magby which I named Vulcanis (I thought it would come in useful against any Magnemites in the area...seriously, they scare me with their Sonicboom attack. Guiles theme and all that shit)). I wasn't entirely sure if I'd keep this in my team for long, I don't particularly like the design of Magby and Magmar...ugly buttface. So I see a few other pretty cool pokemon, a Magnemite which I name Iron Giant, and a Koffing (which was completely walled by the steel typing of Magnemite. Interesting for later perhaps.) I saw a pretty cool addition that I hadn't really payed much attention to previously, the Habitat system in the Pokedex. It sorts, or splits the Pokedex up by area, so you can keep track of what Pokemon you are missing from an area. When you have got all of them, you get a Pokeball stamp in that habitat screen showing that you have all of the Pokemon available from that area. Here is some more info, as I am probably not explaining it well. So when I checked the Virbank Complex habitat, thinking I had all of them (and hoping I did. There is a reward from one of the NPCs in the area for finishing it), it turned out I didn't have everything. So a few more encounters revealed one of the ones I was missing, a Growlithe, which I named Ghost. I will name anything that I might end up using, for the record.

My levels are around 13-16 now; Oshawatt [Barioth] lv16, Magnemite [Iron Giant] lv14, Riolu [Genji] lv13, Purrloin [Dusk] lv13, Growlithe [Ghost] lv13, and I'm thinking my fairly well rounded team should be able to take on the second gym. Do I go for it or go and do some more grinding? I wanna take on the gym, screw it lol.

Gym #2 - Poison

I love the style of this place. Some dingy rock club type of thing. The first guy I face has a Grimer lv14 and a Koffing lv14. Their levels are quite high compared to my team, but I use the Iron Giant Magnemite to negate the poison attacks Koffing had, and Barioth's water gun attacks to beat the Koffing without issues so far.
The second trainer has a Venipede lv14, which I go with a combination of Dusk and Ghost to tackle. I want to see if I can use his fire type moves to do some damage. Ember actually oneshotted it...wasn't expecting that considering I was a level lower. Their second pokemon is a Koffing lv14. I decide to try walling it with Iron Giant again. Steel element is one of my favourites alongside Water. Two Sonicbooms and that battle is done. I seriously think that attack is overpowered to have access to this early. It will only hit for 20HP, but when that is irrespective of defenses and typing, and turns out to be about 75% of a pokemon's HP at this point, that is pretty good.

I realised I like to procrastinate, grind, and search for new pokemon in these games, just from looking at my game time. In fact, I went and grinded a bit before taking on the gym leader, Roxie.

Her first pokemon is a Koffing lv16 (oh dear lol) and I lead off with my lower level Ghost (Growlithe lv13) which has Intimidate. I don't really have a good move that can threaten Koffing, so I switch in Iron Giant (Magnemite lv16) and go for Thunder Wave (gotta set this victory up.) A few Sonic Boom attacks seem to work well. I think Koffing is a physically strong defensive pokemon, so I two-shot him with the Sonic Boom attacks. Whirlipede (lv18) is up next, and it is actually higher level than any of mine. I leave Iron Giant in and go for Thunder Wave. I take a mental note that he has Pursuit, but switch in to Ghost anyway. Leer gets blocked by Protect...and then I realise whats the point in Leering, I can be doing Ember instead. I get in two of them before getting critted to death by Venoshock. I go into Dusk (to share exp) and then switch in Iron Giant (those poison attacks hit quite hard, and this thing is more offensive than I thought.) Sonic Boom finishes it off, and the Toxic Badge is mine.

Protip #2 - I'd really recommend hunting areas for the rarer pokemon that are available. In the Floccesy Ranch you can find Riolus, and with a bit of effort, you can get a pretty strong Pokemon out of it later on. Magnemite isn't terribly rare in the Virbank Complex, and it is very good at this stage. They are actually really good matchups against the first two badges respectively, Riolu less so, as it doesn't really learn any offensive Fighting moves unless you grind it up to lv15 (or lv11 in Black and White) where it learns Force Palm. Magnemite makes the Poison gym really easy though.
tldr: Keep checking your typing across your team, this makes the gym battles a lot easier. i.e. If you have a starter and 2 Normal pokemon, stop playing Pokemon reconsider your choice and hunt through some of the grass for different type Pokes.

Play Time - 17:35
Pokedex - Obtained: 17, Seen: 26
Gym Badges -2

Up next:

Seriously, I'm a bit disturbed after the amount of (yaoi) fan art I had to endure looking for a suitable picture of this gym leader...lol -_-

First Hour Impressions #3

I've not posted one of these first hour impressions posts in a while now. I meant to do quite a few of them and keep this 'column' going. I actually played through a couple games and took the notes that would allow to write some more of these, but for a good few months now, they have just been sitting in my notebook awaiting animation into written internet-word-chunks.

This one was from 31/12/13, so actually just before we headed out for my brother's birthday meal and some drinks to celebrate the New Year Bells. So the story behind this one. I have only a little experience with the Fire Emblem series, and this is a game I have both in cart form on the GBA and on the 3DS as a downloadable title (Ambassador for the 3DS, woohoo!) I have only played FE7 and Awakening but really enjoyed both of them. I think this is a series I really enjoy. Fairly deep strategy, the nailbiting nature of permadeath, political intrigue, war on a continent or even world-spanning scale. Very solid RPG series from what I can see. The games are quite hard to find though. I never see them in shops here, and online you have to pay a quite high price for these games.

Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones (GBA)

Started 5:22pm, 31/12/13

• I started this game up on Normal mode, not too concerned about the long term difficulty, as this will more or less just be the first hour. If I pick this game up again, I'd probably start a new game anyway. But the level of challenge would probably be ok on Normal I thought.
• I'm immediately thrown into a story about the Kingdom or continent of Magvel, with five seperate countries or factions. I predict some conflict and invasions...
• Graphically and musically the game seems really good. For a GBA game, the colours, sprites and character designs are really smooth and well done.
• There is approximately 10 minutes of story-building and dialogue until we find ourselves in the first "tutorial" battle. But because I chose Normal difficulty, apparantely they don't tell me anything about the game actually works. Good thing I've played FE7 and Awakening so know the ins and outs of the gameplay.
• Eirika and Seth carve their way through the first stage of the game fairly easily.
• The second battle has some more units that join us, and the simple mechanics shine, with more weapons and enemies adding just a bit more depth and different match ups. The weapon tree is present as always, and these rock-paper-scissors mechanics in trpgs and strategy games.
• The battles look really good, with the animations and nicely coloured sprites on the battle field really bringing the tactical battlefield view to life in a nice way.
• Into the next chapter after 31 minutes of total gameplay time, and things are getting quite engrossing so far. The story is really picking up, and without spoiling in any way, some major happenings occur due to the war between the two kingdoms. (How is that for vague!) I should say, one chapter is usually equivalent to one battle and some exposition either side of the battle. The battles can be quite lengthy from what I remember from the other games I've played in the series.
• We get more characters and a look at the different objectives and gameplay mechanics that we might be experiencing further into the game. 
• It is slightly odd with the lack of tutorials or hints, but I can actually find them in the Guide menu. Thankfully I remember enough of the gameplay mechanics and tricks from when I played Fire Emblem 7 on the GBA only a few months previously.
• TRPGs are really going to enjoy the gameplay of this one. The game is challenging on Normal, and in fact, I fell foul of something that has always bugged me in the other games. I got all the way to the end of the first battle in chapter 2, had beat the boss and thought I was done. I just needed to finish off the last enemy with one of my characters critically low on HP, and I didn't move them far enough away, so when my other character's attack on the enemy missed, the enemy had it's turn, moved in and killed off my wounded Pegasus Knight. There you have it, permadeath-Fire Emblem's greatest and at times worst aspect

And there my notes end, rather climactically. From what I remember, that was around the hour mark, so that was about an hour of Fire Emblem Sacred Stones on the GBA. It is a fun strategy RPG, and I really want to get back into this and play some more. Even doing this blog post was really fun. On the topic of permadeath, it is one of Fire Emblem's main characteristics, and it can lead to some really frustrating situations if you are like me, and REALLY don't want to permanently lose characters. It adds a whole different level of strategy to the game, and an interesting risk/reward mechanic. Is it worth sending that character in to attack if they only have a 60% chance to hit and kill the opponent? Perhaps if they can kill that opponent if they hit, or perhaps if they are safe from the opponent's counterattack, but if they are vulnerable (weak to the opponent's weapon type) or low on HP and will not survive a counterattack. These are just some of the typical situations that will come up often in Fire Emblem games.
I'd definitely recommend this game, or the other GBA title that we got as a starting point for newcomers to the series. Or even better still, Fire Emblem Awakening is very accessible to newcomers, as there are different options for difficulty and even the choice to turn off permadeath if it doesn't sound like your thing...I won't judge you....
Much... :p

Pokemon Black 2: The Chronicles of Izalith

I thought I'd do a series of blog posts which are a bit different to what I normally do, and record my playthrough of Pokemon Black 2, a game I've still not got around to finishing yet. My story behind this game is quite a lot of putting it off really. I didn't pick this one up because if I remember rightly, there were quite a few games that were coming out, and I just didn't get around to getting the game (add into the equation the fact that Pokemon games never seem to drop in price.) So eventually, Pokemon X is imminently releasing, and I still haven't got around to playing Pokemon Black 2, so I got it as a gift from my girlfriend and was originally planning on playing through X and Black 2 simultaneously. That didn't really work, I like to focus on one game at a time usually, so X ended up getting finished whereas Black 2 progress didn't really go further than the 2nd badge or so. Anyway, I don't normally have more than one Pokemon game to play through at a time, so it was a bit weird that I ended up playing the newer game out of the two, and I found X a lot easier in terms of difficulty and pacing.
So I restarted Pokemon Black 2 a few times before getting to this stage. First time round, I chose Snivy and ended up hating it's middle evolution. It has stupid little feet that really don't look like they fit. Yeah...be prepared for more hate-filled rants about the newer generation of Pokemon designs while I play through this game.

 

See? Stupid little legs!

I'll be posting updates as I go along, either when I get to something interesting, or just milestones like gym battles.

Starting off, I named my character Izalith. I always liked the area Lost Izalith in Dark Souls and for some reason, this name came into my head when I was creating my character. Expect to see more dumb awesome names from games, novels, anime and other general geeky stuff when my inspiration runs out.

I chose the water starter Oshawatt this time round, and named him Barioth (Monster Hunter reference). Out of the three, water is my favourite type by far, and previously, when I was a lot more into the Pokemon games, I did some mono-water type challenges as my first playthroughs for some extra difficulty and interesting battles. I'll see if I can look through the blog for previous entries about those. I'm sure I talked about my progress in some of the DS games with mono-water challenges on the blog.
I actually chose Oshawatt as I played through Pokemon Black, but whatever, I don't mind. I don't especially like the starters from this generation, and I think I took the lesser of three evils here. I think I have the other starters on X as I restarted a couple times before this point, tranferring pokemon via Poke Transporter and the Pokemon Bank into Pokemon X.

Moving through the first few areas, my inner completionist made me take the time to catch all the available pokemon I could find. I usually do a fair bit of grinding in Floccesy Ranch at this stage, gotta get exp and dat Riolu...(Lucario is one of my favourite recent Pokemon)...the first time I played through this game it took me a long time to get this wee rare guy, but he appeared as the first Pokemon when I got to the ranch this time!
So Genji the Riolu ended up joining Dusk the Purrloin and Barioth the Oshawatt on my team. There are quite a lot of available Pokemon in this area, but based on my previous playthrough attempt, I refrained from adding Pidove (straight up terribad, I mistook it with the Staraptor line...which, if I remember rightly, that was actually good) or Mareep to my team. I have a Magnemite planned as my electric member if I can find one. They are very sturdy, solid early choices. I think I actually got whited out by one last time through...

After clearing up the ranch events, I went back to that guy with the Super Saiyan 3 hair (whose name I don't know) and he told me to beat up some kids with monkey pokemon to learn about type matchups.

My team of awesomeness:

Gym #1 - Normal

 First trainer here has some pretty high level normal type pokemon; Patrat lv 9 and Lillipup lv 9. I spammed Dusk's Sand Attack to reduce the accuracy of the Patrat, and then went in with Riolu who was lower level and finished him off for some experience. I userd a mix of all three pokemon on my team for the Lillipup, chipping away at it's HP. It made me think that I should go and grind some more, as after this battle, my highest level Pokemon is Barioth at lv 12. Based on how the next battle and the gym leader will ramp up slightly, I thought I should be higher level, so I went and grinded some more at Floccesy Ranch (That is spelled weird, I think it should be Flocessy..its like occasional. It always gives me problems...aaaanyway)

Taking on the gym leader, they appear to have Normal type pokemon; a Patrat lv 11 and Lillipup lv13. Not so intimidating, or is it?

The Patrat starts out buffing it's attack stats with Work Up twice. I made some mistakes with Dusk because I was only half paying attention/half writing in my notes. So now it had +1 Attack/+1 Special Attack (see? I used to be into the competitive side!? lol) I was a bit scared, so sent in Barioth to Water Gun it away quickly. Man, that was tough so far for a Normal type pokemon.

Lillipup hits pretty hard while I try and heal up by chucking Potions at Barioth. I then get in an X-Defend (yeah, I really used one of these things that normally just sit in the bag, or get sold) and start using Water Gun. I think I'm past the difficult part now, the end is in sight, then he starts using Work Up...Geez. And he just so happens to outspeed my Barioth, my strongest guy. So I get him to within a few HP left, Barioth ends up dying, and my best chance is to go with Genji's quick attack. He's already used his HP Recover item, so I manage to Quick Attack with my greatly underlevelled Genji for the win. Why do I always struggle against this gym? They are terrible normal pokemon on paper...but something happens and they become pretty strong. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Protip #1 - If you have empty spots on your team early on. Fill them with Lillipups with the Pickup ability. They will net you some items from time to time. I have 3 picking me up Antidotes, Great Balls, Paralyze Heals and all useful stuff I don't necessarily have money for yet.

Play Time - 5:08
Pokedex - Obtained: 9, Seen: 13
Gym Badges - 1

The Basic Badge from Cheren is mine! I'll update more soon, so stay tuned.
Next up....

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Weapon Contest

 So I've talked on the blog before about how obsessed I get with the Monster Hunter games. There is something incredibly simple yet satisfying about them. They are essentially a loot grinding type of action/action RPG subgenre which is immensely popular in Japan and the East. The games have been getting more popular in English speaking countries in Europe and USA since the release of the original games, and then Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP, and more recently Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii and Monster Hunter Tri(3) Ultimate on the Wii U and 3DS.
They have kind of found themselves at the top of this subgenre, and many games have tried to replicate the idea. With games like Gods Eater Burst, Soul Sacrifice, Lord of Arcana, Ragnarok Odyssey Ace and Toukiden: The Age of Demons attempting a similar idea. Probably the Gods Eater series succeeded the most out of them, however I am getting sidetracked.

 I am really into the Monster Hunter games as I said before, with hundreds of hours over the span of the series (in fact, I've only played a few from the series, MHFU, MHP3rd, MHTri and MH3U.)
So I was really pleased when the news came out that Monster Hunter 4 would be localised in the form of a new game, the "G" or updated version of Monster Hunter 4. They are going with the terminology they used for MH3U, calling it Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and we will see this game in 2015 at some point.
To commemorate this, they are holding a competition where fans of the series can enter a weapon of their design to potentially be in the game when it releases in English. Quite a few games have done this recently, with a lot of kickstarter projects and even big budget games like Dark Souls II holding something similar.
I had known about this contest for a while, but being busy with university, I only managed to put something together in the last day or two before the contest ended. Nonetheless, I am fairly happy with how it turned out.

Pasted from my email entry:
"Please find attached my entry for the MH4U Weapon Design contest. The name of the weapon is Sandhya and it is a Sword and Shield class weapon.
The idea behind the weapon is the balance between the sun and moon and the day and night cycle. Originally I had planned to make either the Sword or shield with the theme of solely the sun, and the other piece of the equipment would have the moon as its theme. I ended up making the balance between the two prevalent in both the sword and shield design.

How I arrived at the name, and what it means: I wanted a name that brought together the sun and the moon, i.e. a general term for the two.
Some ideas I had and weren't my final choices: "Sunrise, Sunset", "Luna and Sol", "Twilight", "Sunrise Sword", "Sunburst Sword"
I like the idea of the duality of the sun and the moon, and tried to make them equal in the design. Sandhya is a term in Sanskrit for either twilight or the transition between day and night. I don't have a set idea for the element or different sharpness levels of this weapon, but I believe Fire element, or even a dual element would a good choice.
Thanks for bringing MH4U to the west!"

The Sword and Shield is my favourite weapon class as that is what I learned with in my first game in the series (MHFU). It is a great weapon type for newcomers but it can also offer some really good support, status and elemental damage in the endgame weapons as well. Really diverse, fast, and it has the block function that I really like as well. Its a good overall weapon. So this design I had here definitely could have been better and more refined if I had more time, but I quite like the concept. Hopefully they like it. It would be really cool to have my design in the game. Although the chances of that are very slim. Only 2 weapons are chosen, 1 from Europe and 1 from the Americas.

Anyway, I thought I'd write a blog post about this now that I've sent my entry in. Unfortunately, as of writing this post, the contest is now closed. Mine was a bit of a last minute entry, but hopefully I can inspire you to do something similar, or check out the Monster Hunter games if you haven't already. They are excellent games and need some more fans around the world!

Here's a trailer for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate showing the amazing cinematics and action that can be found in these games.

Theatrhythm Curtain Call

Child of Light

I've been interested in this game for a while now, and it is getting very close to its release date of April 30th. I've linked some making of videos from Ubisoft which have some interviews with the developers and some gameplay footage. Check out Child of Light - it has amazing aesthetics and art style.

Chernobyl

I thought I'd post something a bit different today. Today marks 28 years since the disaster at Chernobyl on Thursday 26th of April 1986, in which one of the nuclear reactors malfunctioned, exploded and led to a massive release of radioactive material in the worst nuclear disaster in history. This was slightly before my time indeed (I was born on 17th October 1986), but this event has had such an impact, for me growing up I heard so much about this and the after-effects, and even now, they are working on a new concrete sarcophagus for the reactor as the original one is nearing the end of its lifespan. Even now, we are still feeling the effects of the radiation across Europe. Learning about radiation in school was something that always scared me, but amazed me at the same time, and the events in Chernobyl have contributed to the uncertainty that many have about nuclear power. The power we have discovered is intense and perhaps something of a Pandora's Box.
I have compiled some interesting links which tell different stories about Chernobyl and life in Pripyat and the surrounding area. Terrifying, fascinating and beautiful, it is a place I hope to visit one day.

So this post was very different to what I normally post on the blog, but it is something I am so fascinated in, with my interest in science. It is basically just a tribute and post remembering the hardships and struggles people endured and still do to this day.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/04/remembering-chernobyl-ukraine-201442665946572911.html

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/24102d/28_years_ago_i_lived_in_the_northern_neighborhood/

 http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-battle-of-chernobyl/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/haunting-pictures-of-abandoned-chernobyl

http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieldalton/chilling-photos-chernobyl-28-years-later

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/what-happens-when-wildlife-reclaims-chernobyl

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/europe/2006/chernobyl/default.stm

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2013/03/chernobyl-exclusion-zone-adrenaline-radiation-urbex-a-good-day-to-die-hard/

Some links

Square Enix have reconsidered JRPGs as a genre for the west, it seems. A few websites have been running this story after Bravely Default's success worldwide was a bit unexpected. Seriously...Square Enix have got to realise it is a genre that there is a serious fan base for.

http://www.siliconera.com/2014/03/31/bravely-defaults-success-west-making-square-enix-rethink-jrpgs/

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-31-surprise-bravely-default-success-sparks-square-enix-rethink

http://kotaku.com/square-enix-has-finally-realized-that-people-like-jrpgs-1555236872

Some different websites with different perspectives on that story. After finishing the game, I'm really looking forward to the announcement when we will get the sequel localised. It has to happen after all this, right?

I've been sort of half collecting some cheap DS games over the last while. Its such a solid system and I'm wanting to grab all the games I'm interested in before the 3DS kind of takes over in shops and online. That won't be for a while I think, but it has been a gradual change, with shops where I am slowly downsizing their ds selections, even preowned stuff. Most recently today I ordered the last DS Professor Layton that I was after, Spectre's Call.
Some other ones I'm wanting to get are;

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
The Dark Spire - HNNNGGG its not even funny how long I've been trying to get this one for
999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors - Heard so many good things about this one
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Phoenix Wright - Any from this series, never played any and they are so rare to find ;_;
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time - These FF games aren't supposed to be great, but...
Pokemon Conquest

There are probably a lot more, and I'm always looking for more suggestions. Here are a couple lists of top DS games and DS RPGs for reference. (And one I found on reddit linking to neogaf that is a really comprehensive RPG essentials list)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=503191

http://www.rpgfan.com/features/Top_20_DS_Games/index.html - Ok so some of them aren't RPGs, but whatever

http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Top-10-Best-Nintendo-DS-RPGs-Role-Playing-At-Its-Finest-On-The-DS - Some weird choices, some very good choices

http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/43417/best-ds-games/

http://vsrecommendedgames.wikia.com/wiki/Nintendo_DS

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/08/08/the-top-25-nintendo-ds-games-2?page=1 - I hate those multi page lists, whatever

http://kotaku.com/5878896/the-12-best-games-for-the-ds

http://www.gamesradar.com/best-ds-games/

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/402812/best-nintendo-ds-games-9-years-50-must-own-games/

http://bossdungeon.com/our-favourite-games-on-nintendo-ds/

I've also been watching a lot of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls videos on youtube. Here are a few links and articles. I still think Demon's Souls is the best out of the Souls games. Its what started it all, and for me, it was the most intense experience, with perfect atmosphere, controls and animations. There has been a slight downward trend in the animations, and to me Dark Souls II has slightly clunkier UI and animations than the other games. I need to play more of it though, perhaps once I've finished my dissertation and exams...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-23-demons-souls-retrospective

http://bossdungeon.com/demystifying-demons/

http://www.rocketchainsaw.com.au/deep-darkness-demons-souls-retrospective/ 

Some thoughts about the February/March releases and random links

It always seems to be February and March that a lot of games see release, and its no different at the moment. There are lots of interesting looking games coming out, some games that will aim to change the future of big consoles like the Xbox One (Titanfall), and PS4 (Metal Gear Solid V) and others aiming to hit hard at the end of the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation (Dark Souls II)

I've been playing a lot of Bravely Default, yeah, still slogging slowly through subquests since I got the game back in December. I'm around 140 hours into the game as I've been taking my time grinding, maxing out job levels, collecting bestiary entries, abilities and items as I work towards 100%
Its a really good game but I stick with my initial impression that the game is too stretched out. I don't want to spoil anything as its still too new, but I really think it could have been a lot shorter, story wise.
Also I've been deciding on what sort of playthrough to do for Pokemon Black 2, as I never finished this game, and want to start transferring pokemon to my Pokemon X game through the Pokemon Bank and Poke Transporter apps. I've been watching Egglocke, Nuzlocke and Wedlocke playthroughs on youtube as they make things a bit more interesting.

So I'll give some thoughts about some of the upcoming games or those that came out fairly recently just now. Long rambling and lots of links ahead.

Conception II - Children of the Seven Stars

http://www.siliconera.com/2014/03/10/conception-ii/ - This one, I'm actually not too sure about. It just seems really creepy on the whole...with ideas that are similar to the Agarest games, and I am just too creeped out by those. On the other hand, the character designs, movies and UI are all really nicely designed. So I'll need to wait and see perhaps.

)

Here are some impressions from a youtuber I watch. I changed my mind and didn't want to embed the video as it isn't mine and I didn't ask permission to share it like this. Link

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

I know this came out back in February, but I'm really behind on things in the February/March release window/flood. There are tonnes of games coming out, seriously...It will be on my list of things to get eventually I think.

)

Dark Souls II

This is what I've been looking forward to most out of the February-March games this year. I've had the collector's edition preordered for many months...and I was considering cancelling it and downgrading to the Black Armour edition or the standard edition to save some money. I have a weakness for collector's editions though, and this should be shipping out in the next few days as I'm in Europe, and we don't get it released till Friday.

I've also been keeping track of what Twitchplayspokemon (TPP) are up to. It was such a cool idea at first, even though it can be pretty infuriating to watch. I'm actually kind of amazed they managed to finish Pokemon Red and Crystal (at least the Elite 4.)

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster... I can wait for that one to drop a bit in price...I really wasn't a big fan of FFX, as I didn't play it when it first released. I played for the first time a few years ago and...well, I wasn't too keen.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 - I've had my eye on this one for quite a while, reading some magazine articles as more information became available. It definitely looks interesting. Reviews seemed to be fairly mixed but average, and I think I'll get this one when I can pick it up for £15 or 20...or when I have a bit more money. Damn my lack of job (I decided to leave to focus on university.)

As for things a bit further off in the distance, I'll be keeping an eye on the Unsung Story kickstarter development. I didn't actually fund it for a few reasons. The relative lack of experience from the studio itself, the constantly changing reward tiers and stretch goals, the platform they chose (I would have preferred a handheld like the 3DS to be in there, not just further up the stretch goal ladder.) Anyway, they only just made the goal they had set, so the game will release. And I'm definitely happy for them. Anything with Matsuno and srpgs is bound to be good. I'll wait and see what reviews say though (being ever sceptical.)

http://unsungstory.com/wp/ - you can find out some more info about Unsung Story on the official website, as well as signing up for their newsletter for free. (Which I did.)

I've been happy to hear that Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Milennium Girl will release in Europe in May. Along with EOIV, I never thought that these games would release in Europe. I really don't imagine them to have big fan base, but I might be wrong. I mean theres people like me who love these games and imported 2 and 3. I'll defintely pick this one up. The story mode should be interesting, especially with the animation from Madhouse. I heard good things from people online when this came out back a while ago in America.

Also further afield are some new games from the people that brought us Persona. They are working on a few new games, revealed a few months ago. 4 new games were talked about; Persona 5, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, Persona: Dancing All Night and Persona 4 Ultimax: Ultra Suplex Hold.
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth looks to be pretty similar to some of the recent dungeon crawlers, particularly incorporating elements seen in Etrian Odyssey like the mapping and FOEs. http://www.siliconera.com/2014/03/11/persona-q-dungeon-mapping-f-o-e-enemies-like-etrian-odyssey/

Darkest Dungeon is looking interesting. It is a dark styled dungeon crawler RPG with an element of 'sanity'
ie your characters can start to freak out and lose morale or even their mind. Very Lovecraftian/reminiscent of Eternal Darkness (a game I still need to track down)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1460250988/darkest-dungeon-by-red-hook-studios

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/3DS/Darkest+Dungeon/news.asp?c=57254

Their kickstarter is moving into the last day of funding just now. I'll most likely be picking this one up...although I am a bit jaded with the whole kickstarter model. I'll wait for reviews and to see if this one does hit handhelds like they said it might.

http://kotaku.com/the-20-jrpgs-you-must-play-1222229344 - Rather worryingly (for a fan of RPGs), I haven't played a lot of them...I will need to refer back to this and try to play some more of them.

http://tay.kotaku.com/lets-rank-the-fire-emblem-games-from-worst-to-best-1536904138

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-11-as-monster-hunter-turns-10-can-capcom-finally-make-the-west-listen

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/03/monster_hunter_producer_ryozo_tsujimoto_emphasizes_the_value_of_community_and_the_3ds_for_mh4_ultimate

2013 Round up - Interesting year end posts

For this one, I was kind of inspired by a few other bloggers, gaming sites and videos to do a post where I highlight some of the more interesting 2013 year end or round up articles, videos and links. There are a lot of far more interesting and inspired bloggers out there and this is to draw some attention to them. A bit late in posting this...but better late than never, right? T_T

They are in no particular order, so enjoy!

http://www.thegaygamer.com/2013/12/my-favorite-games-of-2013.html

http://kotaku.com/the-best-video-game-concept-art-of-2013-1493559312?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOp8tl92OnM&feature=share&list=UU-i1YW_eA896znTcV5Owuqw&index=4 - a long one, but a good one from one of my favourite youtubers. He isn't afraid to speak his mind and he is really sceptical and realistic about the games he buys and the quality (or lack of) that he gets from them.

http://rpgamer.com/news/currents/2013/column/123013ts.html

http://tay.kotaku.com/2013-games-that-foreshadow-2014-trends-1493170891/@tinaamini?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

http://www.chic-pixel.com/2014/01/chic-pixels-best-of-2013.html

http://board.rpgamer.com/forum/showthread.php?21254 - One of the podcasts I listen to on RPGamer do a year end episode. I don't think they've posted a best games of 2013 article on their website yet.

http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2014/1011.html - I've not really been reading this site for a long time, but I thought I'd link this anyway. One of the main things that bugs me about the site is the fact that they seem to have a restricted range they can post review scores in. It seems to be 75-95%, with most of their stuff in the 80 percent range. Anyway....

http://operationrainfall.com/2013-oprainfall-awards-part-1/
http://operationrainfall.com/2013-oprainfall-awards-part-2/
http://operationrainfall.com/2013-oprainfall-awards-part-3/
Ok so I like this website. But...I still think they need to limit the content they churn out. Also I often have problems with the quality of the writing on the website. They need more proof reading and editors to look things over before it gets published if they really want to get to the next level. Saying that, its a cool website. Check out the different parts of their 2013 awards.

Youtube Recommendations

So I thought I'd try a few videos in a new sub series of sorts. I've been listening to some podcasts and watching a lot of youtube videos recently. Most of which are gaming related, but I'll go into more detail in each post.

So the way it will work, each post I'll do in this mini series will have a certain theme, so it wont just be one channel or video in each one. I might be recommending a few different youtubers, all of which have a theme linking them together, or I might just be recommending a channel or video you absolutely must check out. It will hopefully evolve a bit as I do a few of these posts.

Youtube Recommendations #1 ~ Thrill of the hunt!

So for my first recent addiction on youtube, it is the 'game chasers' style of gaming videos. These are really interesting semi-vlog sort of videos where the hosts take you on their journeys to swap meets, car boot sales, flea markets, dusty old game shops, bargain shops and anywhere else they can find cheap (retro) games. The reason I like them is that I love reading and watching about games people manage to find 'in the wild', and the retro gaming scene is one that is really absent in Scotland where I stay. So its really cool to watch people picking all these cool games up for so cheap, and finding them so easily.

In no particular order, some of my favourites from this 'genre' of gaming youtube videos are linked below.

Channel 1: The Game Chasers, aka Captain 8 Bit

Subscribers: 41,561
Videos: 150
You may well have heard of these guys, they really skyrocketed in terms of exposure back a few years ago. They joined up with some of the retroware TV guys and have split their episodes into seasons (something which a lot of big site-linked youtubers do), even making DVDs available. Really cool stuff, and they seem like awesome guys to hang around with. When I was studying for my recent exams I got addicted to these guys again and caught up with their videos, working through a fairly substantial backlog of game hunting goodness. Check it out and you'll like it, I'm sure!

Channel 2: The Game Quest, aka Beatemups

Subscribers: 2770
Videos: 34
So when I first saw these guys, I have to admit, I thought these guys were just ripping off the Game Chasers. They even had some of the same effects, and quotes, but they really grew on me and I started to see them in their own light. They are really well edited for such a small channel. Which, by the way, I think is a travesty =p They should have a lot more subs than they do. Very good content, and entertaining to see some videos of game collectors from Australia, which I've heard about a lot. The new game industry is really expensive to be part of, due to the economy and importing (correct me if I'm wrong), and they have a lot of barriers in terms of censoring and whatnot. But the Australian culture is one that I think of as halfway between the UK and USA, which is interesting for me. I see a lot of parallels with the shops and culture in Australia to what we have in the UK. Does that make sense? If yes, check them out, if not...well...ignore what I said and watch some of their videos anyway.

Channel 3: The NES Pursuit, aka Retro Liberty

Subscribers: 14,923
Videos: 90
These guys have such a hilarious show in The NES Pursuit. They do quite a lot of collaborations with other youtubers they know. Some really cool guys like Gamester81 and NESComplex will often be in their videos, but the main reason to watch is the awesome editing and chemistry between Ricky and Aaron. They have such a random sense of humour, and their videos have, on average, had me laughing a LOT more than the majority of other channels. What I like as well, is the connection they have with their viewers and audience-they interact really well and seem really happy to be growing so quickly as a channel. And the variety of videos that they do; reviews, Q&As, a lot of randomness.

Lightning Returns

This is a pretty cool way for Square Enix to recap the story from the Final Fantasy XIII games so far (which is overly confusing and convoluted in a Kingdom Hearts-esque way.)





I have pretty average opinions of the Final Fantasy XIII games so far, but I'm quite interested to pick this final part in the trilogy up to see how the story will end.