Paper Mario

Decided to play some lightweight game

So I finally played through Paper Mario for the third time. This time with the convenience of the Wii U and all that it entails. So what can I say about this game? I both like it and find it rather tedious. The story is rather fun and doesn't take itself serious. Nice characters and the musical nods to the previous games are fantastic. The mechanics are also well done with the badge system, the levelling up system and mostly the battle system. What is annoying is that Mario walks so damn slow. Really, the first two times playing I almost fell asleep before the tutorial was over and I reached Toad Town. The battle also drags a bit due to waiting to execute the command attacks and defences that are relaying on timed action presses. I did think it slowed down Magical Starsign and it does the same here. Also, could the timed button presses be more clarified when it's a hit or a miss? Especially the multi bounce attacks seems to change the hitbox window every time I try it and it doesn't help that I have to relearn it every time Mario changes shoes or a new companion is added.

A cheap-cheap? Great 4 new timed actions to keep in mind!

So the story is basically that after Mario gets an invitation to Princess Peach's castle Bowser crash the party and with the stolen Star Rod makes himself invincible so Mario has to gather the 7 star sprites so that they can stop the power of the star rod that grants wishes. Wow 3 lines, that is the story summed up? I could probably add that you will encounter and recruit different people like the cheap-cheap, a koopa, a gomba, a para-koopa, a bomb-om and so on. They basically are used to solve different puzzles in order to reach the end of a stage were a boss awaits and after that a star sprite.

Interestingly it's the one with glasses that are the only one that escaped on his own AND has the best offensive attack

Not much else to say then that it is a fun game, albeit with minor issues that can affect people differently. At least it's better than Sticker Star.

Grandia

Time for an adventure!

First a bit of confession. I began this game about a year ago, but didn't finish due to my sister returning home from Germany and with her in the house no one was safe so I let it be. Until two weeks before writing this. I remembered I still hadn't finished this game and started it up and after two weekends that totaled my playing time to around 60 hours when I reached the end screen. And what a journey that was. You have to excuse me if I can't remember every detail since I took a time off for a year. The story is that the age of adventure has come to an end since the great wall was discovered and no one could pass through it and the world was declared fully explored. This doesn't stop or main hero Justin, a boy living in... I have forgotten were he lives, but I know it was with his mom. He set out together with his... was she a cousin or just a next door friend? Her name was Sue anyway. Crossing the ocean on a ferry they meet up with Feena, a famous adventurer and they join forces. The reason Justin left I recall was also due to him antagonising the Garlyle forces who excavated some ruins where Justin was told to search for a mysterious legendary city.

Atlantis? No? Alent?

Of course you are able to traverse the wall and discover a new part of the world and as any JRPG the military antagonist already found it. And here I was stumped, I didn't find them as antagonising. I was trespassing in a dangerous area and they seemed to care very much for the protection of the citizen. So who was the enemy? Well, it was the General Baal (really? One of the false gods that Elias threw out of Judea? Clearly a nice guy) who seemed to have gone insane by fusing with a corrupted spirit stone that wanted nothing else than destroy the world in an eternal cycle of life and death. To help him his son Colonel Mullen and (*SPOILERS*) Feenas sister Leen tries to take Justins spirit stone his father gave him and so on. It feels rather fresh when there isn't a conquering empire as your enemy, but some misguided military people who are betrayed by the higher ups. Baals action even turns his own son Mullen against him as he forces a mutiny in the ranks of the military to depose his father. Of course I have to do the dirty deed and dethrone Baal since he won't give up. All in all a really tight story written from start to end. You have the sense of excitement of traversing the great wall, the sadness of farewell when Sue departs back home.

One of the saddest moments in the game

That moment also tells me Justin is really a sociopath, or does he have ADHD? Whatever it is, he can't seem to figure out other people. The whole love story between him and Feena is so obvious I can't believe he missed it. Still, it was fun playing. And mostly due to the levelling system. You have the normal levelling up system, but a twist is that magic and skills level up with use. Normal sword attacks, gain points and new special attacks. Use fire spells and learn a new spell. Hit the right amount of levels and detect other attacks and skills. Rather fun using spell after spell and see the numbers fly away and reach that level up to unlock another spell. A pity the only ones that makes it easy to level up are attack spells which are favoured by fire and after the first slope Earth. Water was woefully neglected by most party member even though it has all healing spells.

Um... who is the knight guy on the left?

The ending is that Baal merges with the stone Gaia and transform into a giant worm and is stopped by Leens sacrifice which traumatises Mullen and Feena is guilt tripped into join him on a suicide mission as their only course of action. Justin unable to figure out a way out of this is left behind and lost until a reunion with all characters that joined you creates a portal to the spirit world were he receives the spiritual sword and can challenge Gaia. He saves Feena and Mullen and fights of Baal and Gaia. Feena and Justin wakes up below the giant tree that appeared instead of the Gaia worm and we watch as the people celebrate, only Mullen stand above them, left alone after his fathers death and Leens sacrifice. Spirits starts to gather and in a flash of light Leen is brought back to life. Even Grandia knew what the players wanted Ni No Kuni! Then credits roll and after that a post-credit scene in which it has gone 10 years and Sue is walking to the port as Justin and Feena are returning and what do you know, five familiar looking kids runs past her and we end as she is waiving toward Justin and Feena as they get of the boat (I presume since it fades to white as she waives at the audience). And I was so excited to play the second game in series to see the follow-up adventure of Justin... but it appears they went with the Final Fantasy type of series and created a completely new world for each game. Damn.

Don't look so cheerful Sue, we ain't seeing you in those games either.

So is there something I don't like about this game? First is the points of no return. Each new town feels like it and I would really loved to have seen Justins mom's reaction of him returning home. Other games usually gives you an airship at the end so you can see the world and return to old places to give the end battle even more impact, but not Grandia. And then we have the biggest issue.... the damn voice acting for the game. This must be one of the earliest games I've heard with voices and they are mostly atrocious. Especially Mullen who sounds bored out of his skull and Baal I can't take seriously. Sadly, they open up the game. Justin goes back and forth with decent to abysmal and Feena is probably the only one that sound normal... most of the time. At least the music is awesome. No, but really, it was a fun game to play through and it hit some sweet spots. I'm more amazed that even though I didn't play it for a year I could jump right in and finish it and still remember all the characters that joined me and some of the more important moments like Justin and Feena at sea and the goodbye of Sue. Wonder what I should play next?

Splatoon

Paintball: The Game

As mentioned in this post I bought Splatoon as a tribute to Mr Iwata and now I can write about it. Took me 3 months you say? No, it actually it took 2 weeks to finish the single player campaign and since I want to avoid a drought or flood of post I have the system of letting these game post release every Wednesday. So it can fall out of sync, but I believe it is for the better in the long run for this blog, instead of the month long droughts I had at certain times and it also makes me less guilty in not writing with a 3 month back-up.

Well, back on track

So I played the game and it was fun. I haven't got the full experience since I haven't played any online matches or such or even attempted the amiibo challenges since I haven't got any of the Splatoon amiibos (or any amiibo at all). As stated I played the single-player campaign with its 29 missions and 5 boss battles to get a good grip on the controls and the mechanics of the game. The story of the single player is as absurd as many Nintendo games tend to be. These two races used to be at war with each others, the octarians and inklings. You play as an inkling and the great zap fish has disappeared that gives electricity to Inkopolis and Captain Cuttlefish recruits you to stop the octarians as agent 3, together with agent 1 and 2. It ends when you corner DJ Octavio that has kidnapped Cuttlefish together with the zap fish. After some intense shooter/platforming the DJ is overthrown and everything is restored to normal. 

The DJ is in the house!

That was basically it. Each mission trains you in certain aspects of the multiplayer. For example, dodging, hiding, stealth and striker. What I miss though is the usage of different weapons like the roller or the sniper (or whatever it gets called). You can train them in local co-op though which I played a bit with my sister and another sisters husband. Of course I won most of the matches and the only time I  really lost was trying out the other weapons since I was curios. I say it was good that I played a lot of Modern Warfare 2 on the PS3 as it gave me a huge advantage in the mechanics of a shooter. At least over my sister and sisters husband, neither of whom have played any modern shooters. A pity you only can play one mode and 1-on-1 matches. Otherwise they sell the whole turf war concept that you must colorise the stage to win, which is an interesting concept that I don't think have been done before. Other notes of interest is that in the campaign mode you can collect scrolls which builds on the lore of the game fleshing out some of the characters like the Squid sisters or Cuttlefish himself, but also a bit of the world itself. For example, the world is set on earth long after humans have disappeared, which sets the world in the same universe as Pikmin and Mario (and others that have a tangible setting to our world).

That could be me in 12 000 years.

Maybe I'm not the best to say if you would like it or not. It has charm and is rather unique compared to other shooters, both in visuals and gameplay since the focus isn't the best player, but the best team. It's colourful and the music is rather funky. I can't recommend any songs other than the final boss music since I don't know any names for the songs. But I'm not a huge shooter fan, the story felt to short for a single player experience and the scroll collecting was rather easy for more re-playability. Together with my lousy internet connection making it impossible to play online I definitely misses out and therefore it felt short and I honestly think Modern Warfare 2 gave a better introduction with gameplay mechanics and different weapons (on the other hand they introduced elements that wasn't part of the online game either). So it felt unfulfilled with only single player and local co-op, but if I had the opportunity I would play it for all it's worth, but at the moment it makes for a lousy review of the game. So try it and see if you like it.

Stay Fresh everyone!

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Castlevania in the future!

Finished of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow last Friday in a last push to get it out of my way, especially since it's like 7 months since I finished of Harmony of Dissonance. Why did it took so long? Well, I never felt like it. And I distinctly recall that something similar happened when I originally played this. Gameplay wise its fine, instead of a Belmont you play as Soma Cruz and instead of a whip and sub-weapons you use a large array of weapons like swords, spears, axes and even guns. The most important though is the soul system. With luck (and intense grinding) you collect souls from defeated enemies and are given their abilities and stats (all varying depending on the monster of course). A fun time waster as when the soul swirls around after the final strike it feels so satisfying to collect it. And thank god for the bestiary so you can keep an eye on it. Otherwise the game plays just as the other two GBA Castlevania games. 

Still, sure miss playing as the Belmonts

The story then. Soma Cruz happens to walk near his girlfriends Mina Hakuba's temple on the day of an eclipse and both are transported to Dracula's castle that was sealed away there when the count was finally vanquished in 1999. There he discovered that he has the power of rule, to collect the monsters abilities and set out to get out of the castle. On the journey he meets Arikado, a shady governmental official that seems to know far more about Dracula and the castle that he lets on, Hammer, an army soldier that works as a supplier, Yoko Belnandes, a witch in the employment of the church (and dependent to the Belnandes family that has strong connections to the Belmonts). Graham Jones, a missionary who believes himself to be the reincarnation of Dracula and the castles true master and finally J, an amnesiac who turns out to be Julius Belmont, the last descendant of the vampire hunter clan, spoilers I guess. So how does Soma fits into all this? The twist of the story is that Soma is actually the true reincarnation of Dracula and after fulfilling certain requirements before defeating Graham the dark powers awakens and you must stop them from taking you over.

And he looked like a nice boy!

So a decent story and with gameplay elements that works and plays well, what is there not to like? Even the graphics are good enough so why don't this just evoke fun in me? Maybe its the randomness of the souls. It is a real grind to get them all and certain ones that are necessary to progress to the true ending is just a pain to get. You can get an item to increase the rate of Souls, but it cost a fortune and you need a lot of money acquiring items and souls (or just start over in New Game + over and over again until you get it). So the extras then? You get to play as Julius Belmont with his kick-ass team music and it feels like old school Castlevania... if you look past flying around the rooms and such and having all the sub-weapons all the time. That is the real improvement, all sub-weapons and you switch between them with a button. This makes a rather fun mode, sadly you need more skill than level grinding or using potions to finish of harder bosses. And maybe that is another problem with the main game, with all the improvements the game feels to easy. Of course you can choose your own handicaps if you like, but the easiest for me was to get max potions and use that when needed during boss fights. And they can all be bought in Hammer's shop. Maybe this is the reason I can't afford the soul ring, I spend the gold on potions.

Me at Hammers shop, lucky they put a cap on 9 items per stack