A Green Mushroom

Persona 4 Dancing All Night is the latest entry in games I'm sampling via Gamefly.  It's basically turning into my Autumn of Gamefly around here. It's a rhythm game set in the same world as Persona 4 with the same characters.  Persona 4 Golden is now one of my favorite games ever so I really just wanted to see what this had to offer. It turns out it has a whole new story and some decent rhythm gameplay.  Symbols fly at the edges of the screen and you hit buttons in time with the music.  It works well enough and Persona 4 has great music to draw from.  My only nitpick with it is that the visuals on screen are so busy that it's often hard to see the notes coming.  I adapted to it fairly quickly but it still threw me off occasionally. I played it for a day or two but the reason I ultimately sent it back is because the story failed to engage me.  It's about idol culture in Japan (pop star idols) and an upcoming concert.  It turns out that to...

I played the first few hours of Persona 3.  After loving Persona 4 Golden I was hoping I could take a step back to the previous entry in the series and still get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I don't think I can. There's nothing really bad with Persona 3 but there are just so many little things that Persona 4 Golden does well that it's hard to go back to this one.  Part of the problem might be that the version I have access to is P3P which is the portable version.  There are almost no 3D free roaming parts to the game except in dungeons.  It makes the whole world feel a more flat and makes it harder to connect with the characters since all you see are their anime portraits.  After reading up on it, apparently there are other versions out there that are better but they're hard to get a hold of. Anyway, the core concept of the plot is interesting and the gameplay has the core of what I liked about Persona 4 Golden.  I bet if I played this game first...

Severed is a game where you use the touch screen in a first person view to both navigate the world and swipe to attack.  It's unique feature is that much of the game is about severing monster limbs.  Not to mention that the setting is creepy but interesting.  It's a cartoony game but it's stylized in a way that really works for it. Severed originally released for the Vita but it just came out on iOS for around $5, which is when I grabbed it. I had a lot of fun with it for a few hours just sinking into the world and getting a feel for the combat... but then things started to feel samey.  The game is a fairly linear experience and there's almost no story or explanation after the initial premise.  I felt like I needed more motivation to keep going. So, Severed will probably become a little mobile time waster for me now.  Instead of sitting down with it for extended periods like I have been doing I'll probably play it in little five minute session...

Persona 4 Golden is one of the greatest JRPGs that I've ever played.  It's amazing.  I was blown away.  I haven't had a game hook me like Persona 4 did in such a long time, it was absolutely a treat. The game is extremely story driven.  If you don't like story in your RPGs then this one isn't for you.  The whole game encompasses a year in the life of the unnamed protagonist (you) as you spend a year in a new town as a transfer student. You move in with your uncle and cousin in the small town of Inaba and start the school year.  You begin to make friends with other students when a series of murders happens in the local community and things take off from there. It turns out there's a whole other world that this one is connected to and inside of it are shadows (enemies) and Personas (positive super-powered versions of people).  A lot of the fun is the mystery of finding out what is going on with the connection between worlds as you and your w...

After having Final Fantasy IV: The After Years on my iOS devices for awhile I figured it was time to actually try it out.  The structure of the game is broken into "tales".  Different characters are highlighted in each tale but ( according to howlongtobeat.com ) altogether they add up to about the length of a typical JRPG. This game is the same world and lots of the same characters as Final Fantasy IV.  It's a direct continuation of the story, only years later.  One of the main character's is the son of Final Fantasy IV's main characters. It really feels like I'm retreading old ground when I'm playing The After Years which is probably what some people want, I'm just finding it boring instead.  I don't think I can force myself to push through and find the fun in this game. Although I want to try all the spin-offs from the Final Fantasy series, I feel no desire to force myself to play through a spin-off if it isn't engaging.  Where I re...

I got around to trying out the Playstation Plus games for the month.  It's always interesting to see what offerings we get.  Some are great, some are flops.  Either way, I always look forward to getting some games at the start of the month from Playstation.  Thanks PS Plus! Here are some quick thoughts about the games for September: Xeodrifter - is a game designed like a super hard Metroid game but with no guidance.  It was really frustrating to not know what to do or where to go.  This game needs to work on it's level flow big time. Teslagrad - a 2D platformer with some interesting style and a magnetic gimmick.  I save most of my platforming for Mario games these days, but if you're a platforming fan there's a lot you could like in this game. Grow Home - This game is both the most interesting and the most frustrating.  The concept is really cool.  You're a running/jumping/climbing robot trying to grow a giant plant into the sky...

I loved the original Geometry Wars on Xbox Live Arcade.  I played so much of that game.  Despite the amount of time I put into it I haven't thought about it much since my Xbox 360 died a few years ago. But then Geometry Wars 3 Dimensions was a PS Plus game for free in July!  I grabbed it for my Vita and have been trying it out. Besides the stage distortion (the "dimensions") being a little annoying, I like the game.  And it's nice to finally have it portable! It has a ton of new modes and stages that are three dimensional instead of just flat.  But the core gameplay of the game I loved is here, and that's what counts.  All the classic modes are present and accounted for, which makes me very happy.  Pacifism has always been my favorite Geometry Wars mode and to see it represented is fantastic. If you don't know, Pacifism mode takes away your weapons and only spawns 2 things; enemies that follow you and gates.  If you pass through a gate...

I've been dabbling in Persona 4 Golden off and on for a few months now.  It hasn't truly gotten it's hooks into me but I find it an interesting game and I keep revisiting it.  But, it's still not a game that I'm super excited to get back to with every spare minute. Part of my problem may be that this game was over hyped for me.  I've seen so many people say that this is the best JRPG ever.  Going into the game expecting that has definitely set my expectations at an unreasonably high level. I really like the core of the game.  The story and characters are interesting.  They're what keep me coming back.  I love the relationships that develop between characters and the social links that I get to form.  The fact that the social link system is so central to the game is really cool. In my opinion, the battle system and dungeon design are the weak points of this game.  The battle system has some typical elemental oppositions and abilities,...

I had never played a Ys game before this one and really didn't know what to expect.  I thought it would be a typical JRPG. When I launched it on my Vita I found out that although it does have many of the generic JRPG trappings it's actually an action RPG.  There's a lot of hack and slashing while turn based combat is nowhere to be seen.  And it works really well!  Sometimes action RPGs just seem to fall flat but I've been having fun with the combat in this game. At this point I'm not sure if it's a game I'll push through and finish or if it's one that I'm happy to simply sample.  It comes down to whether the story and characters are interesting enough.  I don't have much to go on yet.  There's a generic JRPG protagonist with amnesia and a reluctant sidekick.  I mean, really... amnesia?  That's a horrible storytelling trope to fall into, especially for a JRPG. But the combat and gameplay are enough to get me to explore the game a...

Last week I mentioned that I've finally gotten around to some of the visual novel games I've been meaning to play.  My final thoughts were about how the pacing of Danganronpa seemed to be better than the other games I had tried. I was very wrong. The pace of the narrative slowed way down and I got extremely frustrated with it.  The game has murders and trials and I saw the obvious conclusion of the cases almost immediately.  It took forever for the characters to draw the same conclusions.  It was infuriating. So I stopped playing it.  I'm officially walking away from Danganronpa.  It quickly became too frustrating slow for me. I tried going back and playing a little bit of Dual Destinies but that has some pacing issues of it's own. The one game in this vein that I'm still slowly picking away at is Professor Layton vs Pheonix Wright.  The Professor Layton portions of the game are redeeming it enough that I keep coming back for sh...

I've really been working through my backlog this year and I've finally made it to a few visual novels that I've been meaning to play.  Namely: Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright Danganronpa I utterly failed to get into Dual Destinies.  The pacing was so unbelievably slow.  I was led to believe that these games had a lot of gameplay mixed into their narratives, but it turns out that Dual Destinies is mostly narrative.  It's much more like reading a book than playing a game. I moved on to Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright.  I've enjoyed a bunch of the Layton game in the past.  Typically they have a bit of narrative followed by a puzzle followed by a bit of narrative.  And this one is structured similarly.  When I'm in the Layton sections of the game I have a lot of fun and make a lot of progress.  Unfortunately, the Phoenix Wright sections suffer from the same slow pacing as Dual Destinie...

Monster Bag is a game that isn't worth your time or money.  This is mostly a PSA. I had Monster Bag on my Vita for the trip last week since I had gotten it for free via PS Plus.  It's one of the worst free PS Plus games I've gotten. You are a monster that also happens to be a bag.  You jump from one unsuspecting person's back to another while avoiding people with evil eyes and throwing things also.  I probably just made it sound much more interesting than it is. Just a heads up.  Avoid this one.

You're probably going to see a bunch of quick handheld game impressions here this week since I spent a lot of time on planes last week. The very first game I tried out when travelling last week was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  I grabbed it on the PSN store for my Vita right before the trip.  All the talk about the Kickstarter for it's spiritual successor got me really interested in trying the original game. I've played a bit of Castlevania here and there over the years, but it's never been one of the series I go crazy for.  I had never touched this particular Castlevania game before.  But, it's supposed to be one of the best. And the game is actually really good.  I can see the underlying systems that make this game a classic.  I can see the exploration and the challenge that make people love this game. After a couple hours I could also see that this game just wasn't for me.  I think it's a combination of the setting and the power-...

I'm traveling a bunch this week.  I'm probably in the process of getting ready to leave right as this post goes up.  There's going to be lots of time in airports and on planes for the next few days. I'm trying to figure out what games to play.  I always go loaded for bear when it comes to electronics and traveling.  I'll have my 3DS, Vita, iPhone, Nexus Tablet, and Kindle. Should I revisit old favorites or dive into the games that remain untouched on my 3DS and Vita?  Should I download a bunch of iOS games to play try out?  Look through my forgotten folders of iOS that I like but never play?  Should I just give up and read a book on my Kindle?  Should I read comics on my Nexus? As of writing this post I'm really not sure what I'm going to end up doing. I ended up grabbing the Mario Edition of Puzzle and Dragons.  I also have Persona 4 Golden sitting untouched on my Vita.  Those two games are top of mind for me, but I know I have ...

Type-0 just released on PS4!  As I'm writing this, I've played the first four hours or so of the game.  Just enough to get an impression. I have a bunch of minor issues to nitpick, so let's get that out of the way, because I actually like the game.  Here we go.  It's obviously an upscaled port from a lesser game system.  The graphics could easily have come from a PS2, though they came from a PSP in this case.  There's a lot of loading between areas of the map.  I'm sure that made sense on a less powerful system, but it's annoying here.  At least it's really fast loading.  The voice acting is a little forced and I doubt the actors got to record their dialog together.  Tone and responses to statements don't always mesh well.  Just like in Final Fantasy XIII there are a lot of proper nouns early in the game which aren't clearly defined.  But, it's not as bad or unclear as Final Fantasy XIII, so it has that going for it. Tha...

I beat Rogue Legacy!  I guess it was alright. The only reason I stuck with it is because it's a great game to play while I'm exercising on my stationary bike.  Certain games lend themselves to being played while doing other things and this is one of them. And I'm always doing other things while playing Rogue Legacy.  Usually I'll mute Rogue Legacy, get on my stationary exercise bike, play a podcast, and just zone for awhile. After you understand the mechanics and basic classes of the game it becomes about execution of platforming and attacking.  It doesn't require a lot of thinking or planning.  That's exactly what makes it perfect as a game to play while exercising. I played it almost every day for the past few weeks and I finally beat the last boss.  I liked my time with the game and at this point I would pick up a sequel if they were to make one.  That being said, I would never sit down and play this game as a solo activity.  It need...

I absolutely love trying new games!  If you're a PS Plus subscriber on Playstation Network you get to try a lot of them. Every month they give PS Plus subscribers access to a new set of six free games.  Two each for PS4, PS Vita, and PS3.  I always make sure to "purchase" (for free) all of them through their online portal even if I don't want to download them right away.  That way I can play them any time I want in the future, as long as my PSN account is active. It's a great way to sample games I wouldn't normally try.  Sometimes they fall flat, but they're free games so who am I to complain? On top of that, occasionally they'll just give away free games to anyone on PSN.  This weekend you can snag Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare on PS4, Need for Speed Most Wanted on PS Vita, and Mirror's Edge on PS3.  All of them are free.  You just need to jump onto PSN and claim your copies before the weekend is over even if you don't have PS Pl...

I really enjoyed Final Fantasy X.  I finished the whole game in a week and a half.  That's the fastest I've finished any game in the series.  It hooked me and I was engaged enough to pick up the game every single night. Overall, my initial impressions still stand.  This is a great game with wonder characters that interact in a well realized world.  The story is strong and drives the whole game.  It's not too difficult and very friendly for new players.  This is where I'm going to direct Final Fantasy newbies if they ask me where to start the series. Compared to my  initial impressions I did have a change of heart about the sphere grid.  I thought it was simply a gimmicky replacement for leveling up.  At low levels that's still true.  That changes when characters start to break out of their primary sphere grid path near the end of the game.  They get the option to cross over into other characters' paths or even telepo...

I'm playing the Final Fantasy X HD Remaster on my Vita and I'm loving it.  The remaster is also available on PS3 or you can grab the original game on PS2.  Final Fantasy X is such a great game in the series.  It's another leap forward in console generations since it's the first Final Fantasy game on PS2.  I always knew that Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy X were some of my favorites and this playthrough of Final Fantasy X is reaffirming that. The setting is a technologically repressed world where a giant monster called Sin runs rampant.  Sin kills and destroys for no apparently reason.  An entire religion had been built around Sin and it's effects.  One of the outcomes of the religion is a group known as Summoners.  They can call on powerful mystical creatures known as Aeons to help them.  Summoners must journey throughout the world on a pilgrimage to gather all the Aeons.  Once they have done so, they can conduct a final su...

I picked up a PS4 a couple weeks ago.  It was partially in anticipation of Destiny, but mostly because I knew I would be getting one eventually and the money worked out for it. The big games I picked up are Infamous: Second Son and Destiny .  Infamous is pretty but there's nothing to it that I haven't already seen in an open world game.  Destiny is lots of fun but I don't know if it has staying power.  If you want to know more about that I wrote about it  here . Along with these, I also have all the free indie games I've gotten through PS Plus.  Super Motherload is one of my favorite indie games on the system, it's simple yet addicting.  Towerfall is intriguing too, although I haven't gotten people over to play it multiplayer yet.  Sony has promised to keep releasing at least two games per month on PS Plus for the PS4 so I'm excited to see what I get to try in the future. I'm still just getting a feel for the system and the UI.  At...