Elliot's Quest (Switch)

Two white clad archer games?

Picked this up a while ago and thought it was interesting with something similar to Zelda 2. And that is pretty much what you get. You are Elliot who is on a quest to gather the powers of the four guardians in order to defeat the Satar since he has chosen you to be his vessel. Meanwhile Elliot's wife Cara is missing. All this you get by conquering one of the four temples as a bit of flashback to what happened. Being chosen apparently means you can't die with explains why you respawns instantly loosing all life or falling into a pit. So dying isn't that much of a problem. The problem is that the game is mostly running around trying to get what to do. Not much trouble until after the second temple. In comparison Zelda 2 never forced you to do a stage over and over again to use a new ability to get to a secret room or get a hidden treasure, but this game does. And it don't tell you what your abilities can do so you gotta try. I got stuck trying to climb the mountain to get to the stone temple because I first of all didn't have the right abilities that where hidden in places on the world map and one ability I did have, I didn't get could be used to set wooden boxes on fire all at once.

So I was a bit frustrated with the game. It also incorporated a moral system in where your actions affects what ending you get, good, evil or neutral. Now, I played it like a normal Zelda game so I saved every kid and gave back treasures to the people that asked for it, but I opened treasure chests at people's house. I assume that was enough to pidgenholed me into the neutral type and nothing with that, but I think something was odd with the ending. Mostly because ended without me hitting the last boss. I wonder if that is due to not having found all 11 crystals across the map, missing 2 of them. It just ends with Elliot using the guardians powers destroying Satar and with it the island. Everyone escapes on a boat and the credits roll. I must have missed something?

Will I play it again? No not really, I don't feel like. I might, and having played through it might make the second run more fun. It biggest flaws it was to cryptic, the map needed more detailed like how each room is connected, and mark out locked doors, and power-ups and treasures not grabbed so I don't have to check each area again and again. Like Metroid. Most fun actually was being stuck with this walkthrough I found. Problem is that the mountain slope area isn't described much in detail except the save stone with the floating cloud platform. But I couldn't get there. So I looked on youtube and grabbed the first playthrough I could find and skipped to the area I was at... and he couldn't get it either, but he then started saying "what save stone and cloud platform? This is why you need pictures!" and I believe he used the same walkthrough as I. I figured the puzzle out after looking some more, but in another area and that showed that wooden boxes burns allthogheter if standing besides each other.

Ara Fell: Enhanced Edition (Switch)

An archer heroine... not that common

Ara Fell is a game I just picked up because it looked nice, a 16-bit looking rpg. It's about the girl Lita who finds a ring while falling into a ruin in the world of Ara Fell. Ara Fell is some floating islands in the sky due to the magic of the sunstone that the goddess gave the elves. The ring is Dian's Ring, the elven hero of old and it curses all humans to stone. Apparently the elves was losing a battle against the vampires and came up with the idea to turn themselves into stone and all other living creatures to starve the vampires and then uncurse themselves. Took them 2 000 years so playing the long game.

On this journey you have the help of the sorceress Seri Kesu, the bard Doren and the warrior Adrian, Lita's friend and companion in the adventure that found her finding the ring. You gather these 6 artifacts of power in order to uncurse the elves so that they can bring forth the sunstone so that Ara Fell won't fall out of the sky and into the abyss. Against them stands Baramon, the first vampire that intends to kill all elves and use the power of the sunstone to become a god. Took me 20 hours and I believe I 100 % it (besides grinding to level 99 or whatever the level cap is). 

Short and sweet. Having an archer girl instead of sword wielding boy was kinda interesting. She is also apparently rather short so a large portion of the dialog is short jokes on her expense. Adrian is the childhood friend that have a crush on her, Doren is a wandering bard that is in actuality an elf that fled the last battle since he didn't believe in the method to gamble all life for the chance of success. Seri is just described as the most powerful sorceress in the land. Graphics are nice and every major character have a portrait and the main once even different expressions as they react to certain event in the story (the portraits remind me of the portraits of Heroine's Quest), the music is really beautiful and the gameplay is fun in the beginning, but in the end turned rather repetitive. 

Some negatives is that the ending boss is a bit weird, I brought it down to 1 HP, but he wouldn't die. The trick is at that point you are supposed to be defeated to trigger a cutscene that ends the life of the big bad, and to do that he uses a powerful attack that should one hit kill all characters... except that I used Adrian's reflect spell that withstand that attack. A bit poorly designed since I had to check up so it wasn't a glitch or special trick to finish of the boss (except dying) since I didn't want to redo the battle if I was wrong. Turned out to be by design. Which is really weird since that means I actually lost the last battle. Which probably explain why the sunstone is destroyed and Ara Fell plunges to the Abyss. The epilog shows the survivors gather at a new village trying to fend for themselves in this new world. A short distractions that is enjoyable for most of the journey.

Grandia II (Switch)

Wow, that art... is rather special.

Since I've already played the first game I had to give the second game a go. It was a good game, several improvements from the first game. Basic story is that you play as Ryudo, a geohound that travels around. A geohound is just another name for mercenary I guess. You get an assignment to protect a songstress from a small church of Granas to the Tower of Valmar, Valmar being the god of darkness that opposes the god of light, Granas. By performing a ceremony they keep the seal on the destroyed god so that he can't be reborn. But the ceremony fails this year and the songstress Elana gets possessed by the wings of Valmar, which takes the form in Millenia. Basically at night with a large moon Millenia takes over. Ryudo is tasked with taking Elena to the St. Heim Papal state and meet with Pope Zera that is the only one that would know what to do. He can't do much but sends us on a quest to find the Granasaber, the weapon which pierced Valmar in the battle between light and dark. 

On the way we encountered the kid Roan and Mareg, a lionman looking for Melfice, the brother of Ryudo that apparently killed some people and Ryudo promise to help Mareg. You end up in the kingdom of Cyrum where Roan is the prince. The king tried to open some Gates of Darkness that was hidden beneath the castle and apparently the people of Cyrum are descendants of the people of Darkness that fought for Valmar in the past. Melfice kills the king and Roan has to stay as king so you are joined by an automata named Tio that Mareg takes under his wing teaching her about what it means to be human and have a heart. They travel across the sea, first to Ryudo's hometown island where it is revealed that 3 years ago Melfice was possessed by the horns of Valmar when he was forced to kill his fiancé that was the songstress keeping seal intact on the shrine on the island, that also failed. Ryudo was blamed together with his brother for the incident and he ran away. And now he's back and fight Melfice again, killing him, but in doing so is also possessed by the Horns. Elena breaks down and summons Melenia that up till now have devoured all other parts of Valmar that we encountered, but this time she hesitates and instead seals it away in Ryudo since travelling together made her love him. 

Anyway, we get off the island to Maregs homeisland where he tells the elder he succeed in his mission killing Melfice (who I assume killed people in the village) and they go to get the Granasaber in the middle of a desert on the island. Turns out that the Granasaber is a big spaceship. They enter it and go back to the S:t Heim Papal state, where the knights have begun slaughtering people. Inside the cathedral Pope Zera killed the other bishops and priests and it is revealed Zera sent Elena on the quest to gather all parts of Valmar in order to make himself the reincarnation of Valmar due to loosing hope in humanity since they are filled with Darkness, and during the battle of Light and Darkness Granas actually died meaning there is no god of light. So Zera take Elena to the Moon, and you follow in the Granasaber. On the moon you rescue Elena, but Millenia is separated from Elena and used to fuel Zera's turn into Valmar. Escaping they are hunted by monsters so Mareg sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape on the Granasaber.

Crashing back on the planet they go to Cyrum and join with Roan again and go to the mausoleum of the royal family that is some sort of memory bank. Apparently the seal was just something to help along the creation of Valmar so Ryudo volonters to fuse completely with the horns to be able to fight of Valmar Zera. Really the game lost me at this point since suddenly it's all talks about the human heart and such. You get a new granasaber that you actually can use and enters Valmar Zera. After a battle with the core Millenia emerges from Elena and they are two separate people... what? Tio and Roan are left behind trying to hold the monsters so it's Ryudo, Elena and Millenia. A boss rush mode and then fighting of Valmar Zera. Everyone escapes, the game fast-forward a year when Roan travels around the world meeting Tio as a nurse, placing a medal at Maregs grave in his village, Elena is a travelling minstrel, Millenia is a teacher and Ryudo disappeared, burying the granasaber, the end.

First made for the Dreamcast it was one of the two notable RPG:s for that system, the other being Skies of Arcadia. And they look a bit alike. Hero is blue, the body seems built the same way and such. Skies of Arcadia is better though. First off, game is only 30 hours long. Nice time, but the last 2-3 hours still felt like padding a bit since you had Zera right there on the moon, why did we have to return to earth, do another dungeon? The heart thing in the end felt a bit tacked on actually. Music is great, a lot of reused material from the first game and the "love" theme is a reworked intro theme from the first game... and the credit theme. Voice acting is superior (and also the sound mixing). Cam Clarke is Ryudo and is great. Graphics are nice, I think all enemies besides bosses is just 3D-characters of enemies from the first game (and some bosses is actually also from the first game). Problem is the CG cutscenes and 2D animated ones that looks really grimey and with a weird shades. Probably needed to be more polished for better effect... also, no subtitles for those. Sound mixing is better so I hear what they say, but still. Gameplay changes are really nice, instead of everyone having their separate magic they instead equip eggs that you level up with magic points from battles. Good, no more grinding magic to be able to use the better spells. You also get books with attributes that you can equip and level up so that's fine. Overall, liked the game. Maybe a bit short in 30 hours and really nothing in side content, not even side dungeons like in the first game. Story not as good as 1, might prefer replaying that again over this, but still fine. Another problem is that I have a bit of problem with Ryudo in the beginning of the game sibce he is just a sarcastic ass to everyone. He changes a bit a long the way, but this is another reason why I like Justin better and also why Skies of Arcadia is better, Vyse always was nice to people, except enemies.

Resident Evil 6 (Switch)

Continued on with the sixth game in the series. Haven't played this game since back in 2015 as well. And I gotta confess, I never finished it, I played to the final stage of Jake's Campaign and just gave up. I believe it was due to the final mission being the same stage as Chris's so I didn't even bother and I probably guessed Ada's would be the same chapter she already show up to... which turned out to be true. And I guess I lived back home with my parents then so sisters home and hogging the TV... or another fun game turned up. My guess on the clone of Ada Wong was also correct just by picking it up by pure logic. But I also was a bit better this time in finding the serpent emblems so I even got some more of the story this time around.

So people don't like this game... and I agree with them. I had to play some rounds of Tetris and RE5 between each chapters to just stomach it. They changed a lot of things that just make the game boring in comparison. First off they got rid of the treasure system and the upgrade system from RE4 and 5 and instead an all composing skill system. Not bad per say, but you only can have three active skills at once and you change between the skill set ups. Hate it. Firstly it is hard to get the skills since it comes from drops of enemies and finding "treasures". No grade points like in RE5 after each mission. Which is another problem since why replay the missions if you can't get something out of it in a constant manner? Also, the chapters are too damn long. I found out you can start them from the different points, but it doesn't work as well as in 5, and since you can't see where you missed the emblems you guessed, look at a guide and it's kinda important this time around to get the emblems since they unlock files that tells you what is really going on. No reading reports, memos or letters in the chapters. So if you missed certain parts you don't get that Derek Simmons (one of the bad guys) was the guardian of Sherry Birkin or that the name of the President of the United States is Benford. Also, rather interesting in the Covid-19 times is that it takes place in China, and that the C-virus (not making this up) was manufactured there from the beginning. And this game was released in 2013. 

As I noted for RE5 they gave you an auto-function for the quick-time events and it made the game easier (I would even add tolerable), but there is still a lot of insta-death traps that one could almost not figure out. For example, Ada's chapter in the graveyard where you burst through the floor and into an underground tunnel with spinning blades. If you don't move down instantly you die, but pushing the crawls fast button made me constantly spin around and get caught in the blades, killing me instantly. I think I died 5 times before emerging on the other side. Also, they really went all in on the online multiplayer aspect of the game cause I have to turn it off at every single instance when starting a chapter. Also, replayability isn't as good as 5 since there you could chose different weapons and adjust your playstyle the way you wanted, here, you get a predetermined set up and you gotta stick to it. And since you can't upgrade the weapons, there isn't that feeling of satisfaction that occurs when you downed the first boss that kicked your ass in beginning with just one set of shotgun rounds. They even put the infinite ammo as an equipeable skill, so waste a couple of upgrades for taking away the stress off saving the ammo for the good weapons. I get it that you should use the 8 different set-ups so you can change them and with it the playstyle. But they are so damn expensive as well which means I have to play even more. Funny how I spent 40 hours in RE5 and replayed the early stages over and over to gain money and points, but I can't stomach the 20 hours to just finish RE6 just once.

So no, I really didn't like to replay it. I tried playing it some more just to get the emblems and gather enough points to unlock enough of the infinite ammo cheats so I can blast through this. Guess what? Even that is a chore since I thought, maybe try it as the other characters, Helena, Sherry and Piers? You gotta play all the chapters with them since they have to recollect all weapons so they actually stands a chance in the later chapters. 5 had it perfect, shared armoury and just equip what suited you best (which reminds me, probably should get a double set of every weapon so that there is no conflict whatsoever in co-op). Also, how the hell does one get local co-op without getting online... you know, like in RE5? God, so many stupid decisions. At least Matthew Mercer is fun to listen to as Leon.