Arachne

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Posts posted by Arachne


  1. I've been playing it on the Wii U over the past several weeks, and I love it. (some spoilers to follow).

    Story-wise it feels a little more sparse, but it may be more because they tell the story more indirectly. This reminds me more of the Metroid series, where the story is told more indirectly through the setting, atmosphere, and lore you have to actively look for. The only part that was really guided was the tutorial section with the old man (nice callback btw).

    If anything I find the main quest more engaging when I don't have to complete things in a given order. After the tutorial section you're free to go wherever you like, up to and including going to fight Ganon. What kept me from marching straight to Hyrule castle and stabbing Ganon in the face was not that the storyline wouldn't let me; I didn't have the skills or equipment to do so. 

    I haven't noticed any issues with the graphics or anything. The only technical issue is the occasional lag when fighting too many Moblins. I'm conflicted on the weapon system. The upside to the weapon breakage is it encourages the player to try out different weapons and keep a variety on hand, so I'm somewhat okay with it. I'd be more okay if the game had a more robust storage system. Having more storage would allow the player to store more of the rare and powerful weapons, as well as spare potions and food items. As it stands they take up all your inventory space until you have to waste them on weaker enemies or sell them. You can buy a house and store/display weapons and shields, but only a few.

    The music is subtle and beautiful. It made sense for more bombastic overworld themes when you weren't spending 90% of the game exploring it. You still hear familiar themes, but they're scattered around. The soundtrack does up the ante during certain battles and segments, such as Hyrule Castle.

    Overall I'm really happy with it. They took a risk changing the formula, and it paid off.


  2. Been away from Hnet for awhile. It's good to see some familiar faces.

    I'm mostly doing pretty well, except I'm still not good at socializing or making plans with friends. Combined with my unusual work schedule (work Friday to Tuesday) it's a little isolating. I've been working a lot, selling insurance.

    I got back into playing the oboe a few years ago. Mostly in the local community band, which plays a lot of popular music, but other project pop up as well. I'll be playing parts from Vivaldi's Gloria in a couple weeks, which is pretty scary for me but also exciting.

    I've also been playing a lot of Breath of the Wild and various games on my 3DS.

     

    Knuckle likes this

  3. I'm looking forward to it. My only concern, like YLA, is whether these vast areas will have enough to do in them, which was one of my complaints with Twilight Princess. If there is enough to do it should satisfy my wanderlust tendencies in games.


  4. Makes sense. Companion characters can get annoying if they're saddled with a lot of exposition and nagging about the objective.

    The one most people think about is Navi .Probably because, in an open-world game, she keeps reminding you of your objective. It made sense for Navi to fill this role so the player wouldn't forget where to go next for the main story - this probably happened a lot to players. Nowadays most games accomplish this with a quest list or an optional help feature, such as having to ask them specifically for help on the next step.

    I liked Fi as a character, but the continuous exposition got old after awhile.

    Maybe the reason Midna doesn't have this problem is that she plays a bigger part in the main story, and she's given ample time to show her personality and character development.


  5. Aethix knows how it's done. I think that's why I liked the level grinding in Disgaea - the game mechanics allowed for faster grinding if you wanted a challenge. Invincibility squares are a godsend, and Geo Panels are also great for getting good items

    Realising how the Master/Pupil system worked was a huge eye-opener for me as well. Suddenly my healer was my heaviest hitter. He used the staff so often to heal that he had a lvl 28 proficiency, so when he learned a lvl 1 Fire from his pupil he could torch almost anyone on the board.

    Disgaea has a steep learning curve, but I think the sheer depth of the gameplay kept levelling from being monotonous.

    PrimaGaga likes this

  6. I've only seen Sonic's decline from an outside perspective. I played the original Genesis games, and I remember rolling my eyes at Shadow the Hedgehog on the shelves. I feel like Sonic is stuck firmly in the 90's, maybe because his main personality shtick was being 'cool'.

    In any case, I did pick up Sonic Racing: Transformed and was really impressed. Transformed had a lot of ambition and love put into it, and I may give Generations and Colors a go because of that alone.


  7. Yeah, I couldn't play too much of Final Fantasy 4 before I got tired of it. You have to know to spend every penny on tents/healing potions before you get dropped off in the mountains at the beginning where you can't go back. I didn't want to level-grind in the earlier parts, and didn't want to restart the game, so I stopped playing.

     

    I like being able to keep going through the story and just rely on strategy to keep from dying. On the other hand, if there is a level jump, there should be a way to level up quickly. Hunting Metal Slimes in Dragon Quest are good for that, since you can level up quickly, but since they're hard to hit and tend to run away it's pretty challenging.


  8. I don't play a lot of RPGs, but have started a fair number of them that, through frustration, boredom or picking up a different game I never wound up finishing. To this day the only ones I've beaten are Chrono Trigger and Disgaea, the latter of which is really more of a Strategy RPG, but has enough emphasis on leveling that I'll use it as an example.

     

    But here I am, with over 200 hours in Dragon Quest 9, leveling my characters up in different professions to round them out a little more.

    I haven't beaten the final bosses, but I'm still having fun doing everything else.

     

    I don't know why I play this one over others. The graphics are simple, the story's decent, but simple and more than a little cliché. I suspect I've put in this much time because the level grinding is good. It needs to be intrinsically fun, and not something purely to pad the game.

     

    Both Disgaea and DQ9 have mechanics in place that allow you to really level up characters and customize them in ways that almost feel like cheating. Is that what makes the grinding compelling on its own? Or am I just lazy?

     

    Any ideas on this?


  9. I'm really excited to play this one. It's a good fit for the fun-with-perspective Nintendo has been focusing on to really sell the 3DS graphics. I suspect there won't be a really groundbreaking story in this one, but it's sure to be fun.

    I just worry that Nintendo isn't willing to take big chances with their existing franchises this generation, and that they'll just keep recycling ideas from previous titles.

    Infakly and Duseindunlids like this

  10. Pheo just informed me on Skype that I live in Scotland with him and have five kids. HOW DIDN'T I NOTICE THIS BEFORE?

    Ahem...

    Living on the Moon in a shack with Sahaqiel. We have 3 boys and 2 girls. I use a razor scooter for my job as a Pokemon Master.

    I'm okay with everything except the kids. I'll just let them play outside without their space suits. I was also kinda hoping for the Semi-Pro Wrestler.

    pheonix561 likes this

  11. Plus, I'm hardly surprised that a villain called The Mandarin didn't make an appearance in the MCU while the canon was establishing itself. Not exactly the most PC villain name.


  12. Took the words out of my mouth, Necropolis. I was reading through the thread, and was going to say that 'Allegory' is not a good term to describe The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself preferred the term 'applicability', which differs from allegory in that the interpretation is left up to the reader, not deliberately invoked by the author.

     

    I enjoyed the new Hobbit movie, even though it's way longer than it needs to be. Still wish they'd shown little Aragorn in Rivendell, since he was 11 at the time Bilbo and the Dwarves visited and that would have been cute.


  13. I've been playing Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed, and I'm really impressed. You might think it's a poor man's Mario Kart, but it's really good, and  more ambitious than I've seen a Mario Kart game try to be in years.

     

    Also, I've been playing Audiosurf and sometimes going back to Minecraft.

     

    I've also been playing New Super Mario Bros 2, which is a good way to kill time.


  14. I really think Minish Cap is underrated. That was a really solid game.

    But yeah, that does make sense. I try not to make too many theories about connections between the games, since the stories only have tangential connections.


  15. Watching through Mushi-Shi on Netflix. It's a good one to just watch a couple episodes at a time.

    Fiance got High School of the Dead on Bluray. Don't really understand his need to own it. Seems like a compulsion of his more than a practicality. We have plenty of shows on DVD-Bluray that he'll watch on Netflix because it's more convenient than putting in the disc.


  16. I finally have all the Hellsing Ultimate OVAs, and they've been sitting there. I need a good chunk of time to re-watch the others before I watch the ones that were released earlier this month.