And now, for something completely different.

While I'm in between clearing the massive backlog of RPGs I have, I sometimes engage in bouts of Ultimate Marvel Versus Capcom 3 with Nick, who was kind enough to buy me the game as a Christmas present.

I'm pretty crappy at most fighting games, but getting slightly better at them.  But, this isn't a post about how Nick stomped the ever-living hell out of me during our first match-up, how I've gotten slightly better, or even how much I've come to loathe Hulk.

It's about grooving with a friend:  Specifically the one your best friend nearly beats you with.

Alright, so maybe I haven't given up all hope.

Well, that happened.

But you know what?  I finally get it.

I finally get why fans of the Kingdom Hearts franchise keep gobbling up spin off, after spin off, after spin off, even when they're dreadfully dull.

No, I haven't hit my head.  No, I'm not suddenly back on the train of ardent support of Kingdom Hearts (I suspect the Enabler would hit me until I wasn't, as she should).  However, after recently finishing Kingdom Hearts II, I'm finally understanding why fans get excited with each new entry into the series that is produced. What I don't understand, however, is that given the frequent teasers and glacial progress in moving the story forward, what I don't understand is why fans haven't crucified Tetsuya Nomura by this point.

Jerk.

Kingdom Hearts II isn't a perfect game by any means.  Furthermore, after hearing a lot of negativity around the game, I went in with low expectations, especially after playing two of the last three spin-offs.  However, my experience was more enjoyable than I anticipated:  Due in part to actually being able to make sense of the convoluted story (playing the aforementioned spin offs helped), but also because, by comparison, the cast was a lot more likeable.

This isn't a post that's about me reviewing the gameplay aspects of Kingdom Hearts II.  Instead, I'd like to first talk about what connected me more to the second game than any of the spin-offs.  Following that, we'll be examining the game through the perspective of someone who's played the prequels and spin-offs, as well as surfacing a few of the questions that would have inevitably arisen if you played the game when it first came out (i.e. before most of the spin-offs came out), or just decided to play it out of chronological order.  Be warned:  Spoilers lie ahead.

But along with those, a whole lot of confusion.

Hyperdimension Neptunia: I came, I saw, I turned my PS3 off.

"Virtually everything a JRPG should not be"

"Powerful premise, regrettable result"

"A case study in how not to design videogames, Hyperdimension Neptunia aspires to be a parody of the console war and instead winds up an unfunny joke"

If you peruse the reviews at GameFAQs, the above denotes the lower rated ones of the PS3 game Hyperdimension Neptunia.  To be fair, I tend to ignore any reviews that are radically in favor of a game or radically against, often finding the middle of the ground reviews to be the most honest.

But you know, in the case of Neptunia, they might not be that far off. . .

If you're expecting a long post where I bemoan all the flaws of Neptunia and tell you how every moment from start to the game's ending was an excruciating journey, you're not going to get that.  I played Neptunia for about 25 minutes:  Long enough to see the introduction sequence, long enough to play through the first dungeon.  Long enough to get acquainted with a few of the characters, and long enough to get a feel for the battle system.  Have a look at it yourself:

While gameplay trailers can only do a game so much justice (or injustice), I'm wondering if you all picked up on some of the same things I did:  The horrendously slow feel of the combat.  The dull music.  The bland, uninspired background.  I was treated to a lesser version of this in the tutorial stage and quite frankly, couldn't bring myself to play the game much longer.

..In the end, yeah, that's all I really have for this post.  A poster at BlueGartr who loves JRPGs as much (if not more) than I did convinced me to give the game another shot, but that will likely happen far, far into the future.  The sad reality is that while the story of Neptunia might have kept me interested enough to play years ago, today it has to contend with numerous other games with much more engaging gameplay for my attention.

..And even if  it didn't, at this point, I'd rather go through another play of Unlimited SaGa.

Motion Comic the Video Game: inFAMOUS

I don't know if you can put a price on having your credit card information potentially hacked, but Sony seems to think that if you could, it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 digital games. The great data breach of '11 may have been a hell of an inconvenience for a lot of people, but for me it meant getting a new debit card and enjoying a bunch of free stuff from a conciliatory company. In days of yore, the ancestors of the Sony executives would commit ritual seppuku to restore their honor. In this modern age, we settle for a free download of inFAMOUS.

Though if they still want to disembowel themselves, we'll understand.

I initially began playing the game almost as soon as it was installed on my PS3, but a little more than halfway through, a higher calling beckoned. I had right around that time put out my intention to play through my Almost Got 'Em list. I was having a lot of fun with it, but I wanted to get a jump on Breath of Fire III to get myself going. So I let inFAMOUS rest, unfinished, while I played through other games for the blog.

That's right. I backlogged inFAMOUS because of The Backlog.

So, time passed, I made a pretty major life change which involved moving, and when I got settled in I spent most of game-playing energy on Breath of Fire III. While in the process of beating it, I made a decision that would directly impact my decision to go finish inFAMOUS.

I started playing Final Fantasy XI again.

And quickly discovered nothing makes me want to go back to single-player games faster than some good ol' FFXI.

The story there is that Ayn and I had been discussing the game a lot, which has undergone some fairly drastic changes in the couple years since I had last seen Vana'diel. All that talk combined with a great Steam deal and a little bit of free time led me to wonder what it would be like to team up with Ayn and have a series of hilarious buddy-cop adventures together. Unfortunately, right around the time I first logged back in was right when Ayn decided he was too old for this shit.

And after I saved him from that toilet bomb.

So while the new iteration of Final Fantasy XI might be a vast improvement in some ways, it's not really all that fun if you don't have a dedicated group of friends to play with. Finding nothing of note in the land of MMOs, I decided to pick up where I'd left off with Cole McGrath and the twisted, ruined, blighted landscape he roams, known as Empire City.

A Lackluster Third Act - Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel

 As I mentioned in a previous post about Atelier Rorona, I have a love-hate relationship with games developed by Gust.  When it comes to Ar Tonelico games, however, there's mostly love.  It's funny, really, because these were the last sort of games I expected to ever like.  For those unfamiliar with them, think of them as what you get when you cross an Atelier game with a dating sim with a turn-based RPG.

Sounds like a crazy combination, right?  What's even crazier is that it works.  Or at least, it did until Ar Tonelico Qoga:  Knell of Ar Ciel came along.  When you look across the Ar Tonelico games, the first entry, Melody of Elemia distinguished itself as simplistic, yet quirky and interesting enough to sustain one's attention.  The second game, Melody of Metafalica, in short, improved on just about everything from the first game (except for quirks in the localization process..).

Unfortunately, rather than further refining what made the series likable, ATQ takes a number of steps back, showing a far inferior combat system, less interesting characters, and a less robust crafting system.  While at the core, it still has many of the things that characterize an Ar Tonelico game, it is a sadly lackluster ending to a series that showed great promise.

So what happened with the third game?  You'd think that the potential of the PS3 would allow for a game of even greater magnitude.  Did trying to be more poetic by using "qoga" and "knell" in lieu of the numbered entry and usual subtitle change up things that much for the worse?

Well, you'd be surprised. . .

Not so metal Alchemist

I have a love-hate relationship with games developed by Gust.

I hate that often, there's an annoying glitch, bug, or just poor quality control which, in the best case, serves as a minor annoyance, and in other cases, is absolutely gamebreaking: And not the type that works in your favor.  Yet, many times, there are things that I love about them which allow me to overlook these flaws:  They're (usually) aesthetically pleasing (if not in terms of sprites, than the lush background).  They have a number of interesting gameplay mechanics going for them.  Perhaps most importantly, however, they usually end up being the sort of games that you can sit down, veg out to, and play casually through -- at least in an initial playthrough, as long as you're not trying to be a super completionist.

Enter Atelier Rorona.  Like a few other Gust games in the past, this game suffers from random freezing, which can destroy hours of progress if you haven't been diligent in saving.  On the flipside, it is one of the most gorgeous games produced on the PS3.  For me, however, the beauty of Atelier Rorona wasn't in pure aesthetics, but it's relative simplicity:  Something much needed at a time of year when things get hectic for me at work.

A Delayed Acquisition

How I acquired this game is a funny story.  Originally, when it was first released, I happened to chance upon it at one of Gamestop's ever-frequent (though they'll try to convince you that they're not that frequent) Buy 2, Get 1 free used game sales.  In a previous piece, I lamented how there were very few PS3 exclusives that justified my purchase of the system:  Something that, to this day, I, as well as others, I'm sure, still struggle with, as we hope for the release of some game that makes us happy to own this iteration of Sony's console:

Not that we're pointing any fingers.

So when I came across this game, I was somewhat relieved, yet still not fully convinced that I wanted to purchase the game (even used, it was still $45 bucks).  Fortunately, someone made that decision easy for me:  The guy who snatched up the game after I had put it back while I debated a bit too long on my decision.

Pretty sure it was this guy.

It was for the best, as by the time I finally got around to purchasing it, it had dropped to $26 or so.  Patience is a virtue after all.  But enough of my acquisition story:  You're probably curious about the game itself.

Theoretical Sounds

In my previous post on Raidou 2, I only gave a passing mention to the music of the game, noting that the first game had a far superior battle theme.  What I also neglected to mention was that one of the boss themes did a good job of captivating the sometimes eerie mood the game had:

However, this isn't a post that merely reminisces about how much the soundtrack of Soulless Army  is as opposed to King Abbadon:  It's not.  Both have admirable soundtrack composed by the same person (Shoji Meguro), and most of the Soulless Army tracks find their way into the second game (Remember what I said about the Arakana Corridor in the previous post being a trip down memory lane?  You'll find the above theme playing their as the regular battle theme). 

Furthermore, while maintaining many of the key themes from the first game, Raidou 2 adds a few new ones that perfectly suit the mood of the game.  For example, there's the foreboding theme of parts of the Tento Caverns, where many of the mysteries surrounding the Tsukigata clan's ties to the supposed deity these woods are named after:

Also, even though I found Geirin's constant use of "theory" "conjecture" and "process" ungodly annoying, well, there's no denying the guy has a pretty catchy theme:

Speaking of annoyance, remember those Fiend battles I mentioned?  The ones that made me put down the game in frustration?  I also mentioned that I came back quickly.  Yes, a better part of it is sheer stubbornness.  The other part is that if I'm going to get my ass kicked in a game and come back for more punishment, it'd better be to a damn good theme:

Of course, the game also does laid back themes pretty well.  One thing that I'm glad remain unchanged between the games?  The theme of the Narumi detective agency, aptly named on the soundtrack "The Lazy Detective Agency":

Whether you're playing the first or the second game, you're in for a musical treat if you play either.  Even if you don't particularly care for Shoji Meguro's compositions, it's pretty hard to argue against the fact that he always manages to find a score that suits the mood of his games.  On that note, I leave you to reflect with this theme, played during some of the more somber turning points of the game:

Considering how bizarre the MegaTen universe is, finding music that suits the mood certainly makes Meguro a musical genius, wouldn't you agree?