Week 18.5 - Oops, I Did It Again - Heroes of the Storm

We decided to surprise the kids with a trip + Paramore concert on Sunday, so I completely forgot to post. Oops. Didn't think about it until I was driving into work this morning. Someone should really call me out when I forget, or perhaps I should just stop forgetting.

Anyway, I've been playing a LOT of Star Wars: The Old Republic again. They're currently doing 12x XP gain for class quests, so you can level a character almost entirely by doing their main story, which is one of the best parts of the game. I really enjoyed it when it came out, there just wasn't a lot to do at the end game. Now that there is more to do, in addition to getting a lot of alts leveled up, I'm looking forward to getting to the end game and gearing multiple characters.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned playing Heroes of the Storm. I really love it still. I was going to talk a bit about it, but Game Trailers did a video that pretty much covers what I was going to bring up, so I'm just going to link that.

Currently Playing: Pillars of Eternity, Final Fantasy XIV, Bloodborne, Star Wars The Old Republic, Heroes of the Storm
Games Completed: 4 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 4 (Majora's Mask, Ori and the Blind Forest, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Bloodborne)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: 0

Week 17: The Search for Week 16 - Game Design Notes 1; Loving What You Come To Hate (Which you used to love)

So I totally missed last week. No great excuses other than being busy, which isn't a great reason to have skipped posting even a quick update. For my atonement, I'll actually start my series of Game Design Notes, in which I will talk about various lessons I've learned in the hope that someone benefits from my past experiences. This week, I'm going to talk about one of the first things that I ever noticed about myself after getting into game design, and how I went about fixing it.

Game designers play lots of games. Well, they should play lots of games. If you aren't interested in playing games, I'd question why you're interested in making them. There are too many lessons to learn from what others have done and are doing. Yes, a turn-based strategy game can certainly speak to something that you're doing in your first person shooter, you just have to know where to look. This is a skill that develops over time, and is very important. This, however, isn't what I'm here to talk about today. Today, I want to talk about a phenomenon that I know I experienced, and in speaking to numerous other designers, isn't limited to just myself. It has nothing to do with working with engine tools, developing systems, or playing games for research. It, instead, has everything to do with playing games for fun.

When you become a game designer, you have to develop a critical eye so that you can ingest everything media related that you consume. Asking how a wrestling gimmick might be applicable to your game is a real thing. Understanding the economy in a city building simulation can potentially help your realty system in your open world game. You begin to peel back the curtain, as it were, and this is two-fold when it comes to games; since they are what you work on. This has the very real effect of liking games less, especially early on in a game designers career.

After I got into the industry, I went through a period of about a year in which I could not really enjoy playing anything. I'd find every fault I could, not just bugs, but flawed systems or poorly designed levels, and blinded myself to anything good that was there. The critical reception didn't matter. For instance, Oblivion came out during this period of my life, and while I put many hours into that game then I really didn't have fun playing it. Sure, I learned a lot by being this critical, but I got into game design because I loved games, and suddenly what I'd made a career of was making me hate them. I had to take a step back and see what had gone wrong. I realized the following things, and they're tips I now give to any designers I talk to that have mentioned having the same problem.

1. Being critical is OK. It's necessary. Knowing how something could be made better is part of what makes a designer a designer.
2. Just because something could be better doesn't always mean it's bad. It just means there is room for improvement, be it in an update or a sequel. There are certainly times when something is bad, but figure out if its absolutely game-breaking versus something that would just make the experience more enjoyable.
3. Try to understand why something you perceive as bad is bad. What was the developers reasoning? Is there another system that the one you perceive as bad is interacting with, and the way it works is actually vital to the other or both?
4. Make sure that something you perceive is bad isn't just something that you don't like. There is a big difference between something being flawed and something you just don't enjoy. This is arguably the most important of the tips.

These have helped me remain critical while enjoying games that I am wanting to play mostly for fun over just research. As a game designer, I cannot just play for fun...I am always going to be analyzing. I just have to remember to have fun at the same time.

Started playing Star Wars The Old Republic again this weekend. I'd forgotten how much I really liked the game, and they've done a lot with it since going Free 2 Play. Still playing all the other games listed in currently playing, too. Really enjoying HotS a lot, and Bloodborne now has improved load times, which help playing that immensely. Until next week!

Currently Playing: Pillars of Eternity, Final Fantasy XIV, Bloodborne, Star Wars The Old Republic, Heroes of the Storm
Games Completed: 4 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 4 (Majora's Mask, Ori and the Blind Forest, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Bloodborne)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: 0

Week 15: In Search Of Atma Zodiac

So this week was pretty busy in the evenings with both work and band practice and hanging out with friends, and as such, I didn't play anywhere near as much Pillars of Eternity as I'd imagined I would when the week began. Hell, I left my laptop at the office two nights. Instead, when I had the chance to play, I mostly played Final Fantasy XIV. 

I'd been working on upgrading my Relic Weapon, which involves a bit of grinding of various different things. For the part I just wrapped up, you run around to various FATEs (timed events) in an area and do them until a certain item drops. You have to do this in 12 different zones, so it's time consuming, but something I was able to sneak in and do a zone or two in the times I did play. Yes, it's grindy, but I'm a player type that enjoys grinding (see my hours in any Diablo or Diablo-like game as proof) so it wasn't a big deal. I finally completed it Friday. I did get some Pillars of Eternity in over the weekend, as well as a little Bloodborne and Marvel Heroes 2015. I also really started digging into Heroes of the Storm, which I am greatly enjoying. I'll talk more about that next week after I've had more time with it, but I'm pretty sure I find it a much more interesting game that League of Legends for a number of reasons. I'm sure that will be an unpopular opinion with my LoL diehard friends.

Heroclix was a success with the daughter. We did a few rounds of the basic game (i.e. not using powers) and we're going to move into doing that during the week. She's pretty excited about building a team, and equally excited about the Deadpool booster packs we have coming in. I managed to get out of International Tabletop Day only ordering a single game, which was Rivet Wars for what ended up being 60% off. I know CMON had some issues with getting the game out, but I've only heard good things about the game itself. Plus it has cool steampunk-esque minis. I also kept myself from immediately ordering the expansions, which is pretty crazy for me.

Currently Playing: Pillars of Eternity, Final Fantasy XIV, Bloodborne, Marvel Heroes 2015, Heroes of the Storm
Games Completed: 4 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 3 (Majora's Mask, Ori and the Blind Forest, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Bloodborne)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: 0

Week 14: Pillars of Eternity

So I received my new laptop, and it's really nice. Pretty much replaced my home PC at this point, with no loss of quality in games. I'll need an external hard drive, but for now I'm good. True to my word, the first game I played on the system was Pillars of Eternity. Boy, what a game the guys over at Obsidian made.

Pillars of Eternity is well-known for being one of the most funded video game Kickstarter projects, with the goal being to make an RPG that was reminiscent of the older Black Isle Infinity Engine games, such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. I'm here to tell you that they greatly succeeded at their goal. It's a product of the past brought forward in time, designed with knowledge of present design sensibilities. In many ways, its a refinement of those titles I listed previously. I always felt that the combat in IWD was better than BG, simply because it was less slavish to 2nd Ed. D&D than BG was. Being completely free from a system designed to be used in a tabletop experience for PoE makes it even better.

I know some people hate Real-time with Pause. I know some people picked a class they didn't like and thus they didn't have a good initial experience. Whatever. PoE has been consuming almost all my free time. Hell, I was even playing it while waiting for certain things to pop in FFXIV. I'm ~10 hours in playtime in, and I haven't even gone to the first of two major cities yet. The game seems enormous. I'm very early in the main plot thread, too, and have mainly been doing side quests. I love, love, love this game.

I've played a little Marvel Heroes 2015 in the past few days, as I had the itch for something mindless. Also did some more FFXIV and finally upgraded my chest armor on my healer. Yay? As for Bloodborne, it's still being played. I even did a Share Play for @Chupacaubrey to get her to the first boss so that we could eventually co-op.

In non-digital gaming news, I picked up the Age of Ultron Heroclix starter, as my daughter requested that we play, "that super heroes miniatures game again." Needless to say, I'll always oblige when asked something like that.

Currently Playing: Pillars of Eternity, Final Fantasy XIV, Bloodborne, Marvel Heroes 2015
Games Completed: 4 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 3 (Majora's Mask, Ori and the Blind Forest, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Bloodborne)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: 0

Week 13: We are born of the blood...

Short update, as it was Wrestlemania night and I'm super sleepy. I've been playing a lot of Bloodborne this week. I'm not far enough in to say this with absolute conviction yet, but I'm fairly certain it is my favorite Souls game thus far.

Now, I'm one of those people who, when they heard about Demon's Souls before it was even a thought on Atlus's release schedule for the US, decided to import it from Asia since it was region-free and could be set to display text in English. I loved that game. I've played each game since, including repurchasing the US version of DeSo when it was released. Apart from preferring the Gothic Horror theme in Bloodborne more than the more medieval theme of DeSo and both DS games, the combat is much better for me. It's a bit faster paced, dodging feels good, and the regain mechanic is sadistically great.

Speaking of sadistic, I often hear that the Souls games are "super hard." I have to say something on this before wrapping this post up. They are difficult, this is for sure. Their influence is that of classic games like Rogue/Nethack from a difficulty perspective, minus the one life per character that those had. But while they are difficult, I maintain that they rarely ever feel unfair. If you die, there is generally something you could have done better. After reorienting myself to playing a Souls game, I'm proud to say that I only lost one time to the last two bosses I fought. The game relies heavily on being aware of your surroundings, exploring everything to uncover hidden paths, and pattern recognition. Sure, sometimes I get into a bad spot and die, but I generally know what course of action I could have taken to win. Even those times I died to the bosses, it wasn't because of learning them and dying just because it's expected. Instead it was me be brazen in one case and deciding it was a good idea to fight a boss for the first time with only 3 Blood Vials and in the second case panicking and throwing a Molotov instead of using an antidote.

I certainly need to play more, but thus far I am absolutely loving it.

Pillars of Eternity came out this week, too. I'm really excited about it, but I'm going to christen my new laptop by playing it on there. Hopefully it gets here tomorrow. For the record, I kickstarted PoE over two years ago. It doesn't go against my purchased count.


Currently Playing: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Final Fantasy XIV, Bloodborne
Games Completed: 4 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 3 (Majora's Mask, Ori and the Blind Forest, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Bloodborne)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: 0

Week 12: It's not you, Type-0...it's me.

So I have this issue crop up every now and then. It's certainly a stupid problem to have, and not one I'm really complaining about, but it is something I annoy myself with. Whenever there are a number of games coming out that I'm excited about, I have major issues focusing on any single one of them. That is what's currently happening.

Last week, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD came out. It's a fun game based on what I've played so far. What I've played so far, though...isn't much. I'm sorry, but I keep thinking about Bloodborne and Pillars of Eternity that are out this coming week. So I short circuit and end up loading up some MH4U or FFXIV. I think that mentally I don't want to get super involved in a single-player narrative experience when one that I'm more excited about playing is just around the corner. And I'm definitely more excited about Pillars of Eternity and Bloodborne (in that order) than I am about FF Type-0. I know some would think, "Well just wait to buy one then!" But this situation was weird. Type-0 comes with the FFXV demo, but only for the first batch of copies sold. It was used as an incentive to buy Type-0 on release. It worked. Bloodborne is the latest in a game series I adore and it makes playing co-op with friends easier than before. Pillars of Eternity, well, I backed that the day it went up on Kickstarter. I've been waiting for it for a long time. To say that I'm excited for a new old-school CRPG from many Black Isle alumni would be a massive understatement. I can't stop thinking about either.

I know I'll get back to Type-0 eventually. It's a Final Fantasy game, and I've completed them all thus far. But for now, it's going to sit because come Tuesday I'll be playing Bloodborne, and Thursday Pillars of Eternity. Now back to trying to get my Atma weapon in FFXIV. *sigh*

Currently Playing: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Final Fantasy XIV
Games Completed: 4 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 2 (Majora's Mask, Ori and the Blind Forest, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: +1

Week 11: In Which I Had a Post Ready to Go, But Forgot to Hit Post (Ori and the Blind Forest)

Edit: So I had this post ready yesterday, but apparently didn't hit post. Failbot.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a modern gaming masterpiece. I picked it up this week and finished it this week. I absolutely adore it. Graphically beautiful, absolutely stunning soundtrack, mechanics paced in such a way that they teach and provide new things at a near flawless rate, a moving narrative, and some of the coolest scripted sequences I've played in a Metroidvania game. It's brilliant. I actually exclaimed "Oh no!" aloud during the game, and I can't remember the last time I've done that. I could continue gushing about how much I loved this game, but I'm simply going to say do yourself a favor and play it. It's available on XB1 and Steam. I cannot recommend it enough.

Next week, I have Final Fantasy Type-0 HD coming, which also comes with the FFXV demo. Looking forward to both of those. I also started playing some FFXIV again, trying to get through some stuff prior to the expansion hitting. I'm probably going to give ESO another go come Tuesday, when it drops its subscription free. I actually enjoyed it when it came out, and I've only heard that it's improved since then.

Currently Playing: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Final Fantasy XIV
Games Completed: 4 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 2 (Majora's Mask, Ori and the Blind Forest)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: +2

Week 10: The Day Late Short Post

I was in Chicago for the Pentatonix concert yesterday, so I totally didn't get to update. I actually intended to after getting back to hotel room post-concert, but I felt so terrible with a fever and chills that I actually thought about trying to find an urgent care or ER in downtown Chicago. It was that bad. Show was great, though. I'm still rocking a 101+ fever, that I did break with ibupropen just little bit ago, but I still feel terrible, and now my bed sheets are all sweaty :\

Still playing Monster Hunter (shocking, I know.) 100+ hours now. I'm buying Ori and The Blind Forest this week. That's all.

Currently Playing: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Games Completed: 3 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 1 (Majora's Mask)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: +2

Week 9: Five Tips for New Monster Hunter Players

Hey, guess what...I played more Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate this week. I'm sad to say that I've yet to reach G-rank, but I'm close! Last week I said I wanted to provide some tips for new players, in case any of the 30-ish people that read my posts have picked up the game and aren't too familiar with it yet. Or for people that have been playing that might not know some of the things I've learned over years of playing.

1. Always eat before a hunt
• No matter what you're going out to do, eat a meal. The bonuses you get are too good to pass up, and in the grand scheme of things, it's very cheap. Also, look at the bonuses you're going to get, as they are very specific to what you're doing. Some are great for gathering, others for fighting. When I'm going up against a monster I'm unfamiliar with, I always boost defense. I cannot stress eating enough, and I always feel stupid whenever I forget to.
2. Upgrade your food
• This directly relates to the above. There are quests that will upgrade the quality of your food, which increases the bonuses you're going to get by eating. Some of these are in the caravan quests, other in the gathering hall. Here is a list of them. http://www.rgj.com/story/life/2015/02/12/monster-hunter-4-ultimate-canteen-food-ingredient-upgrade-technobubble-mh4g-mh4u/23320833/
3. When you reach a new rank, focus on building a new set of armor first
• Getting to a new rank is exciting, and also scary. Monsters are sometimes new, and always hit harder. The best thing you can do is pick an armor set from the first set of quests in the new rank and get it built. You can even go ahead and upgrade it a few times. This will make your hunting much less frustrating.
4. Get rid of your skill penalties
• Sometimes with armor sets, you'll get bonus skill, but also end up taking penalties. Be wary of these, but not in the 'I'm never going to wear this' way. Instead, slot some decorations in to break the penalty. Yes, you'll lose some decoration slots, but most of the penalties are worth using a slot or two to get rid of. For those who don't know, decorations go into empty armor slots. As a 4a type tip, the only decorations you should really worry about until G-rank armor are ones that will bump you into enough points to actually get a skill, or breaking a skill penalty.
5. Don't forget you can combine things on quests
• Fighting something new or difficult? Bring your 10 Mega Potions, plus 10 Honey and 10 Potions, so that you can make more Mega Potions during the hunt if you need to. This works with anything you need to combine, so it's good to keep in mind. Just remember that you are taking up inventory space whenever you do this, so only bring all the extra stuff if you need to.

There you go, tips to hunt by. I know that Monster Hunter can be a daunting game, and they do a better job this time of helping players learn the game. There are a lot of things they don't teach though, so hopefully this helps someone.

Currently Playing: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Games Completed: 3 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 1 (Majora's Mask)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: +2

Week 8: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

46 hours. Mathed out, thus far I've spent about $5 an hour towards my investment in a New 3DSXL with Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. That ratio is pretty great already. It'll get much better not only because I will end up putting many, many more hours into MH4U, but because there are a number of 3DS games I haven't played that are waiting for me too. Right now, though, it's all about Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Monster Hunter has been around for awhile. It started on PS2, has been on PSP, PS3 (HD Port), Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. I didn't really get play until Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP, and even then I wasn't "into" it that much. That really happened with Monster Hunter 3 on the Wii. I put a lot of time into that game, then even more into Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for Wii U/3DS. We're talking 400+ hours. So what clicked? What made me fall in love with this series? Nothing has fundamentally changed since the series started, but it was finally understanding the game that made me enjoy it as much as a do. I'm not really going to do a full rundown of the game. I'm just going to talk about Monster Hunter as a series and what the game is at its core, for those that don't know. There are a lot of reviews out there for people that want more information.

To say Monster Hunter can be obtuse is an understatement. There are a number of things they do poorly, and up until MH4U, teaching the player how to play the game was chief among them. Honestly, there is still a ways for them to go, too. There are a lot of moving parts to understand, and without someone having explained them to me, I probably would not have gotten into the series.

I realize that there may be some people that don't really know what Monster Hunter is. The easy explanation is Dungeon Boss Fight: The Game. You and up to three friends gear up and go fight giant monsters. A more complicated explanation is that its a lot like boxing. It requires patience, understanding your opponent, knowing when to jab versus when to go in with the haymaker. Maybe MMA with it's large variety of fighting styles is actually more accurate. Either works as an analogy.

In both of those sports, pattern recognition is a major part. Fighters will study tape of their opponents, and watch for certain tells that they have. "When leans back with his left shoulder, he's trying to get me to move in so that he can swing at me with his right," is something one might notice. Some might call it a tell. They'll then come up with a way to react to that situation if it comes up during the fight. At it's core, this is what Monster Hunter is. Knowing a monster, and how to react. Each monster has it's own patterns and tells. Each weapon type you can use has it's own attack speed and combos. Every item has it's own timing for using during a battle. All the armor sets provide more than just extra defense. What you do with this information can win or lose you the fight.

It's worth noting that Monster Hunter is not an easy game. You're probably going to fail learning a monster before finally winning, and this is part of what makes the game great for me. I have probably shouted more in both anger and joy at Monster Hunter than any other game I've played. The frustration of failing a quest whenever the monster is already injured; the exhilaration of killing a monster you've been bashing your head against a few times. It's a feeling rarely matched in gaming. In fact, the only other time I've been as excited about finally overcoming a boss in a game was being in the first group in the guild I was in that took down The Lich King in World of Warcraft after weeks of trying. Monster Hunter provides that feeling regularly.

Next week, I will talk a little more about Monster Hunter, and give some protips that I learned from people which helped me when I started out. They also give a better picture of the game, too.

Currently Playing: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Games Completed: 3 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 1 (Majora's Mask)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: +2

Week 7: Better Late than Never

So I've been a bit busy. Well, a bit is an understatement, but I still had time to finish the Story Mode in Hyrule Warriors. I have to say, it's a really entertaining game. As mentioned in my post last week, it succeeds because it doesn't try to do too much with it's core gameplay and builds around it in interesting ways. Getting loot, skill trees, leveling...the systems aren't anything too extravagant, but they're good enough and pull together well to make it a lot of fun. There is still a lot of game there to play with the Adventure Mode, and I'll probably continue playing it off and on.

I got my New 3DS on Friday, and picked up both Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and Majora's Mask. I had to think about what I was really tracking for completion in regards to my backlog, and I decided that when I talk about completing games, I'm really thinking about games that have a generally single player, narrative driven experience. So, for instance, a game like Minecraft wouldn't count against purchases. That actually applies to the only other game I've purchased this year, GRAV. So I'm going to remove it. Maybe that's cheating? Ah well. I'm still going to track all the purchases here, but label them differently. With my focus on actually playing things, I'll still hopefully end up above even.

Since MH4U isn't really a game with an end, I'm not going to count it against purchases. Majora's Mask, however, does count. I haven't started Majora's Mask, and I actually never played it on the N64. I'm really looking forward to it. It will have to wait, though, as MH4U is going to get a majority of my time. Look forward to this coming weekend, in which I expound the reasons why I love Monster Hunter as a series, and what the new one does to make it even better.

Currently Playing: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Games Completed: 3 (The Longest Journey, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Hyrule Warriors)
Games Purchased (SP/Narrative): 1 (Majora's Mask)
Other Games Purchased: GRAV, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Net Total: +2

It's Game Time!: Week 6: Hyrule Warriors & Darkest Dungeon - with g...

It's Game Time!: Week 6: Hyrule Warriors & Darkest Dungeon - with g...: When I've gotten a chance to play anything this week, it's either been Darkest Dungeon, which I Kickstarted last year, or Hyrule War...

Week 6: Hyrule Warriors & Darkest Dungeon - with guest blurb by Richard Dansky

When I've gotten a chance to play anything this week, it's either been Darkest Dungeon, which I Kickstarted last year, or Hyrule Warriors with the wife. Let's talk about Darkest Dungeon for a bit. I'm just going to steal their blurb from their Steam page:

Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes against unimaginable horrors, stress, famine, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Can you keep your heroes together when all hope is lost?

Essentially, your father wasn't happy enough living a life of luxury in a swanky cliff-side estate and decided to dig into the earth, finding a gateway to a realm of evil. Good job, dad! Now it's up to you to recruit adventurers and send them off to their eventual death in an attempt to reclaim the place. The game works on building a large group to select from, and continually cycling them in and out of groups of four, shoveling them off into dungeons to try to get heirlooms and increase their levels. While they're on their adventures, which you control, they'll gain stress, which can give them attributes that change their character. There is a lot to juggle in the game, and it can seem like too much at times. It's also intended to be very difficult, and excels at this. If you want to rush through something, it definitely is not the game for you. They want it to be slow paced overall. They could have some better explanations in some of the menus, but it's Early Access still, so we'll see what they do over time besides add content to it. So far, it's an extremely fun game if you're looking for a Rogue-like that doesn't play with kid gloves.

Now, Hyrule Warriors is a game I'm really enjoying, too. Yes, it's a Musou game. For those that don't know, Musou games are the "genre" that games like Dynasty and Samurai Warriors belong to. Most of them are made by Koei, as it's something they kind of specialize in. You play as a single character and fight against hordes of enemies. In Dynasty and Samurai Warriors, they try to tie into some historical reference material, but that isn't why you play, because they just get ridiculous in that regard. I asked Richard Dansky, Lead Clancy Writer for Ubisoft, friend and former co-worker, to write a few thoughts as to what makes Musou games great. He's responsible for me getting into them, as I didn't really play them much until I kept hearing him talk about them.

"The wonderful thing about Musou games is that they have a very simple goal: Make you feel like an incredible badass. And so when done well, they bend all their systems towards reinforcing that feeling of ultimate mastery. Flying bodies, camera pans, SFX, kill counters spinning like crazy - all of that is there to tell you that you are indeed awesome." - Richard Dansky

And they do a great job of this in Hyrule Warriors, which is a Musou set in The Legend of Zelda universe. Numerous characters to choose from, huge over-the-top attacks, and easy to pick up gameplay make it great to play after a day of work. I don't have to think too hard to make awesome stuff happen. I'll probably finish the main story this week, but will likely continue to play after finishing the story as there is a lot of extra stuff to unlock. Of course, hopefully on Friday I'll be playing Monster Hunter 4. It all depends on when Gamestop ships my New 3DS.


Currently Playing: Hyrule Warriors, Darkest Dungeon
Games Completed: 2
Games Purchased: 1
Net Total: +1

Week 5: Another Final Fantasy Finally Finished

Two games completed in 2015! Hooray!

Seriously, though. I have this terrible habit of starting games and not finishing them, so it's actually nice to see them through to the end. It's not really an outstanding achievement or anything, but it makes me feel like I'm not wasting my money.

So, Final Fantasy XIII-2. What a strange game... From a gameplay standpoint, very solid. I'm a fan of the Paradigm system, and that was here and working very well. Having two permanent party members for the entirety of the game felt a bit weird, but the ability to get monsters and use them to build out the paradigms you had was pretty neat. There were "right answers", by which I mean there were ones you wanted to grind to have, and that's always a bit of a bummer since it doesn't really let you have the ones you WANT to have. 

The story was about time travel and paradoxes and fixing timelines, etc. I watch Doctor Who, so wibbley-wobbley timey-whimey stuff doesn't really bother me, but there were more than a few things that weren't explained very well at all. I'm not going to go into spoilers here, but man they used very theory of time travel that exists. I think. It's confusingly straightforward. 

Overall, it's not going to reside in my upper-tier list of Final Fantasy-related titles. I wasn't compelled to do any of the side content as I didn't really care enough about the rewards or characters to want to stick with them too long. My completed save clocked in at 18 hours, which is apparently not too far off from doing a speed run. Honestly, at 18 hours, I felt it was starting to overstay its welcome. I admit I almost gave up on the last boss with the intent to just watch the ending, simply because I'd screwed up my leveling and didn't realize it until the end, which made the final fight pretty difficult. I gave it another few goes, though, and managed to eek it out. That felt pretty good. In all I give it 3 Red Chocobos (yes that's actually the song that plays when you ride a red chocobo in the game)/5.

Up next, I'm really going to dig into Hyrule Warriors. I've not given that game the attention I've heard it deserves.

Currently Playing: Hyrule Warriors
Games Completed: 2
Games Purchased: 1
Net Total: +1

Week 4: Right Under the Wire

Was watching Royal Rumble tonight, so short post for this week. Still playing FFXIII-2. I'm probably about half finished with it. There seems to be a lot of side content, but I'm really not interested in doing any of it. Fought a boss last night that required a paradigm setup I totally did not have, so I had to spend awhile grinding to get it. After that, I totally face rolled him though. Game is fun so far, but I could easily see it out staying its welcome if I were doing all the side things.

Waiting for a few more update before going back to GRAV. Still really fun, but needs a bit more basic functionality with the base building in particular.

Currently Playing: Final Fantasy XIII-2, FF Theaterhythm: Curtain Call, Monster Hunter 4 Demo
Games Completed: 1
Games Purchased: 1
Net Total: 0

Week 3: The Longest Journey COMPLETED

So I finished my first game of 2015, which was The Longest Journey. Here is my quick review.

The Longest Journey was released in 1999, towards the end of the traditional point & click adventure game era. For this, it suffers from some very obtuse puzzles, but ultimately the narrative is quite good and pulled me through it. For a game released in 1999, it would still be considered very progressive. Female lead character who isn't afraid to call out sexism, dealing with an abusive household, classicism, and more. I look forward to playing Dreamfall at some point in the future. Four out of Five Guybrush the Dancing Monkeys.

In other news, they announced the release date for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. February 13th, so I'm going to be trying to finish Final Fantasy XIII-2 before it hits. Depending on which friend I ask, XIII-2 is either great or horrendous. I'll find out myself, starting now. But Monster Hunter 4, that's a game that I will play for a long time. It is just such a satisfying experience, but I'll talk more about that in a later post.

Currently Playing: Final Fantasy XIII-2, Grav, FF Theaterhythm: Curtain Call, Monster Hunter 4 Demo
Games Completed: 1
Games Purchased: 1
Net Total: 0

Week 2 - Eclectic Boogaloo ( Grav , The Longest Journey )

So what have I played this week? Well, I'm about half-way through The Longest Journey. The narrative is really great, but it does suffer from being a very old-school point and click adventure game. Preface, one of the games that made me want to design games was The Secret of Monkey Island. Guybrush Threepwood is one of my favorite characters of all time. This doesn't mean that I like all the design decisions from the games though. Specifically, I've never been a huge fan of the classic "Well, no idea what to do now, let me try combining every single item in my inventory" dilemma. It may have had some strange, endearing quality when I was a kid, but now I'd prefer to get through the narrative with puzzles that are a bit more logical than "use the rubber duck to hold the clamp open and put it on a string so that you can then fish out the key." I'm still going to finish, though, because I am intrigued and do want to get to Dreamfall and Dreamfall Chapters.

However, I did buy another game without having finished one. It's called GRAV, and it just released in Early Access form on Steam. I put a lot more time into this than any other game this week. It's pretty great thus far. We built bases, danced around fires to regain health, found crashed ships and overrun science labs, built really derpy armor, built better armor, and much more. I've found it incredibly compelling thus far, plus I can run my own server. Some pictures are at the bottom.

I've also started a portable game to play both in bed and when I'm not at home. However, this isn't one I purchased, it's one I already had. I'm not really sure how I'll judge when I've completed Final Fantasy Theaterhythm: Curtain Call, but I'm sure I'll when I consider it "done." Probably after playing every song at least once. So far I'm enjoying it.

Currently Playing: The Longest Journey, Grav, Final Fantasy Theaterhythm: Curtain Call
Games Completed: 0
Games Purchased: 1
Net Total: -1

(buy Grav, everyone)

Week 1 - New Year

I've decided I try to do too many things. Last year, I signed up for a 52/52 movies/books challenge, and that failed miserably. Not because I don't like watching movies or reading books, but because I also like playing video & board games on top of spending time with my family & friends. So while I do enjoy all these things, I realize that I need to focus, as when I spread out among all the things I really don't get to do enough of any of them. Spending time with the family isn't going to go away, ever; and neither are video & board games, so I'm going to prioritize those this year. Some might scoff at this, but it doesn't mean that I'm not going to read, or that I'm not going to go to movies, but I have a serious backlog problem with games and this year I plan to deal with it. Well, at least parts of it. I have no delusions of clearing up the entirety of it, but I need to make it better.

I've enacted some rules on myself for this year when it comes to video games.

1) I Can Only Purchase a New Game if I Have a Positive Completed Number
What I mean by this is that, with the exception being getting a game at a great price for pre-ordering via my Best Buy Gamers Club or Steam/GMG sale, with each game I purchase I have a "credit" for which to buy a new game. Any of the ones I get as deals take this "credit" into the negative, with a max of -3, which is a totally arbitrary number I picked but will stick to. As of now, I'm completely even with 0 purchased and 0 completed in 2015.

2) If I Can't Decide What to Play, I'll Ask Something/Someone to Tell Me
Generally, if I get a new game, that should be what I make my current active game. As I mentioned above though, my backlog is pretty epic, with many games that I haven't completed really making me a bad person. I'm using Backloggery to keep track of things, and while this isn't extensive, it's a list of games I have that I WANT to complete. Here is my backloggery page http://www.backloggery.com/piratepwnsninja
Part of the issue with having such a huge backlog is that I get decision paralysis when choosing what to play. To kick things off, I used Backloggery's random game picker to tell me what to play. If people that read my blog/post on my FB have recommendations for what I should be playing, they can send them to me.

3) I Will Update My Blog With Progress
Each week, I'm going to post about what I played and/or completed. Maybe multiple times a week, maybe not; but at least once a week.


So this is my post for Week 1.

Currently Playing - The Longest Journey
Games Completed - 0
Games Purchased - 0

spotify:user:piratepwnsninja:playlist:0nFQgy7vyehVjMa7cfLX1B