MIDI Week Singles: "Revived Power" - Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

"Revived Power" from Shadow of the Colossus on Playstation 2

Record Label: King records (Japan)

Composer: Ko Otani

Game Developer: Team Ico

The soundtrack for Shadow of the Colossus is, on a whole, fantastic.  Orchestral, exciting, at times dark and fearsome, it might be hard to pick an appropriate single.  However,  Shadow of the Colossus also uses event-triggered music, blending different tracks together.  Anyone who plays this game will agree that the music does a lot of work to augment the experience of the player.  

In this way, the track Revived Power stands out above the rest.  When I hear this track, I am clinging for dear life to the shoulders of a fifty foot tall behemoth, slowly climbing my way to my goal.  It's been a struggle to get here, but the tides are turning in my favor.  

I also hear flavors of John Williams in this track by Japanese composer Ko Otani.  This might be my imagination, or a product of my limited musical vocabulary.  However, if Otani is indeed standing on the shoulder of giants (or colossus), well then, that only seems appropriate.

-D

Second Impressions: Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

http://rebloggy.com/post/gaming-design-poster-fan-art-shadow-of-the-colossus/74106064450

I am midway through Shadow of the Colossus, and I really think I should write something about this game.  The first time I encountered this second release from Team Ico, was when it was new, watching Zor the Red play, and sometimes taking turns.  It left a strong impression on me, and I knew this game would stand out over the test of time.

A few years later, I find myself with access to a PS3, and an earnest desire to play this game again.  Thank you ebay, I now own a copy of Ico/Shadow of the Colossus for PS3.  Though, I do not actually own the console I play it on.  This could be an issue in the future.

For the present, I definitely think Shadow of the Colossus holds up.  The art direction is just fantastic.  The graphics aren't terribly dated, and graphics aren't much of a problem for me as I am perpetually behind on the latest and greatest.  The gameplay is in some ways very simplistic, and this works to its advantage.  The few features in the game are fantastically well honed with very few exceptions.  

Much of the time in this game is spent simply going from point A to point B,  and it's beautiful and peaceful, a stark contrast to the actual Colossus fights.  For this, you employ your horse, Agro.  Agro takes a little getting used to.  My best equine advice I can give is not to try and control Agro too closely.  He's actually pretty smart, and will follow the curvature of the landscape.  He'll get on your nerves sometimes, and he can be a pain in the neck.  But it would take an extraordinarily long time to walk to your various destinations.  

One of the poorest features of the game is actually the difficulty in mounting your horse.  The mount button is also the jump button, and if you're not positioned just so, you'll end up jumping around like a goofball, which can quickly become annoying.  Apart from mounting, the camera can take some getting used to.  It has a mind of its own, and there are times when it simply won't cooperate when I want to get a look at something.  On the other hand, one of the best features of this game are the incredible majestic camera angles you are treated to.  Still, when the camera is a problem, and an 80 ton colossus is bearing down on  you, I'm less concerned about the directors vision and more concerned about not-dying.

The controls, and the gameplay in general requires patience.  This game is not a pick-up and play platforming adventure.  The controls are quirky.  However, with difficulty, there is always the exchange.  Every quirk contributes in some way to the overall artful payoff.  The heaviness of the hero's motions is really great to watch, even if he isn't as agile or quick as I'd like him to be.  If you have the patience and the will, you can become quite adepts at Shadow of the Colossus, and reap the rewards of beautiful, epic monster battles.  

One important thing to note is the third colossus battle.  This is the time in the game when the wheels come off, and everything seems to fall apart.  Typically, a colossus takes me about 30 minutes, start to finish, but the third battle took an hour and fifteen, and that doesn't include when I rage-quit and started again a later time.  And I remember having the same problem the first time through, when Zor and I felt we were slamming our heads into a brick wall.  Still, I made it through, even without consulting a strategy guide.  For anyone else:  consult a strategy guide.  Save yourself the heartache.  It's really amazing how an entire game can seem so terrible when you're having a bad time.  

Ultimately, Shadow of the Colossus is a sort of high-risk, high reward game, that I'm enjoying more and more as I get older.  If you can-- play it.  I'll buy you a copy.  (maybe)

-D

The Great Garden Nursery Game

click this totally sweet image to link to the makers page

It seems to me I am determined to design games based on my life.  These days I'm always thinking about Gardening and gaming.  To that effect, I was thinking of gamifying my job.  That is to say, my job has just a few dynamic elements, but they keep me busy all day.  

First there is watering.  Plants start to die if they are not watered.  Many of them can bounce back without any trouble, but some of them don't bounce back so well.  And if they go long enough without water they lose their ability to hold water effectively, thus requiring more water.  This also takes place when a plant is in a pot for too long and becomes root bound.  In both instances, the plants run out of water quickly.  A final thing that happens when a plant is not appropriately watered is that the plant will die partially, and become ugly.  Ugly plants don't sell.  

It's important to keep the plants healthy.  However, the primary reason to keep the plants healthy is so that customers will purchase them.  Thusly, customer service takes priority over watering.  This conflict of interest can be very challenging, as customers do not respect the greater needs of the nursery, they are singularly focused on their own needs.  (there are rare customers who see the bigger picture, and they are wonderful people).

Sometimes customers will simply pick out plants on their own, purchase them, and be on their merry way.  Other customers require a great deal of song and dance before they will make a purchase.  This comes in the form of simple questions, obscure questions and shopping buddies.  Simple questions require only a moment of time, obscure questions require research, and shopping buddies require full devotion of attention for an extended period of time.  The flipside of the devotion of time for shopping buddies is that they often will make the biggest purchases.  

Y'know, kinda like this

When I imagine these systems in the form of a video game, I'm thinking of a one-screen game, with basic pixel art, using color to attach meaning.  In the basic stage of the game, you simply have to water all of the plants.  Plants are represented by green icons, which, over time, degrade to yellow, red and then brown.  If a plant turns yellow, it needs water.  The player icon simply has to walk to each yellow plant and press the 'water' action button to resucitate the plant.  I imagine little blue and white pixels for water.  

If a plant turns red, it has received damage from dehydration, and now is not able to water back up to green.  If a plant turns brown, it is dead.  Dead plants will not change when watered, and must be removed using the 'deadhead' action button. When a dead plant is removed, it will be replaced, in time, by a new, green plant.  However, every new plant results in a negative penalty to the score.  

While the player is busy watering plants, customer icons will wander into the screen.  I imagine these as shaped and colored differently from the plants, however, with variation.  The basic customer will enter the screen,  randomly collect green plants, and leave the screen.  For every green plant collected, the player gains points, equal to at least double the potential penalty points.  

I also imagine different customer behaviors.  Some customers target you, and while they are within a certain proximity you are unable to water plants.  These customers can be avoided, but may best be dealt with.  One customer simply needs to be handle by pressing the action button a few times.  Another type will not be shaken, and you must walk across the screen, through the plants, unable to water, but the customer will pick up plants along the way.  After the customer has five plants, they will leave, and you can collect your points.

Maybe something like this, but with higher resolution?

The goal is very simple, in classic arcade style: gain points.  Each stage will have the same time limit.  Essentially from open to close.  Points carry over from one stage to the next.  The game is lost when the player runs out of points.  Players are ranked based on the number of stages they can complete, and the highest number of points they can acquire at any one time.

But the dynamics will increase with every level.  I imagine a temperature meter, with a low of 70 degrees. The temperature can increase level to level, thus increasing the rate of dryout for the plants.  I imagine larger plants which are slower to dry out, but also slower to water.  These plants are also worth more points.  As you gain in levels, the days get hotter, the customers heavier and the plants larger.  You can conceivably go on forever, or until the temperature gets up to 150 degrees and all the plants die instantly.  Fun times.

Seems vaguely fun to me.  And I get to do it every day in real life!  Wow!  Anyway, I have no idea why anyone would have read through all that stuff I wrote up there.  I just like to come up with basic game ideas and describe them.  If I had the attention and dedication, I'd even program them myself.  Until that happens, this is what I've got.  Sayonara,

-D

Emulator Hour: Final Fantasy (NES)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d8/FF1_USA_boxart.jpg/250px-FF1_USA_boxart.jpg

A lot of the fun of Final Fantasy comes from picking your character classes.  The designers were very clever in creating six classes, but only four characters to a party.  Thus it is impossible to try all of the classes in a single play through, and the possible combinations are enormous.  In addition, each class will receive an upgrade about 3/4 of the way through the game.  This upgrade will change the abilities of that character, to varying degrees of significance.  It is very helpful to be aware of these upgrades when choosing your initial class, so that you don't end up stuck in the mud after dumping 20 hours into a game.  This happened to me recently- a result of making a hasty and uninformed decision when designing my party.

Be warned, you only get to choose your character classes once -  at the beginning of the game.  Similar to the first phase of Settlers of Catan; your choices during this phase will have a strong impact on how your playing experience will roll out.  Also similar to Catan; you will likely be well into the game when hindsight kicks in and you realize which choices you would have made differently.  You may then be confronted with the urge to start over again from the beginning.  On my recent play through of Final Fantasy,  I decided to experiment and go with an unorthodox: Fighter, Black Belt, Red Mage, Red Mage line.  

My party set-up was fine for the first 9/10 of the game or so.  I have very strong physical attacks, which allowed me to blaze through most of the dungeons in the early part of the game.  In addition, being full of physical attackers means I don't have to think very strategically; I don't have to conserve spells, I only have to try and spread my attacks out among the groups of enemies.  (This is because Final Fantasy has the obnoxious programming quirk of allowing players to attack enemies who were destroyed earlier in the round, and thus result in an 'ineffective' wasted attack.)

I first began to wonder if I had made a mistake when designing my party when I began to find my Red Mages simply can't learn certain spells.  I had the idea that I would make one mage lean toward white magic and one mage lean toward black magic.  It worked out pretty well until I found that I didn't know what most of the spells do, and their 4-letter names were not very good descriptors.  In addition, a super-essential Level 5 spell - LIFE was not available to Red Mages.  This was a problem.  The Life spell is the only way in the game to bring a slain party member back while out in the field.  Without that spell, I have to beat a given dungeon and boss without letting anyone die.  This is extremely tough, but I got good at it by grinding out lots of levels and over-powering myself for each dungeon.

The wave of regret hit me much stronger in the later half of the game, when I upgraded my Red Mages to Red Wizards.   As it turns out, Red Wizards can learn the LIFE spell, but by that time, I had maxed out my spell slots for that level for both Wizards!  Fuck fuck, shit fuck fuck fuck.   

But, you can't go back, only forward.  My party hardily bashed its way through the water temple and the air temple, and now I've gotten to the final temple, but I just can't hang.  I'm at level 28, which should be plenty to beat the dungeon, but I always sap my supply of healing spells, and I start to lose party members.  I haven't even made it to the boss.  I'm sure if I boosted my levels up to 32 or so, I could make it through, but I'm just tired of it by now.

So, I probably won't beat Final  Fantasy this play through.  And I'm too disgusted to start over again.  And, really, I don't know what I would do differently.  I liked this party, and I would be interested to try it again, just remembering to consult a walk-through beforehand.  But I'm also tempted to try a new party combination, but I'm not sure what.  If you're still interested, I'm going to walk through each character class and describe their advantages/disadvantages and contributions to the whole.

http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/nes/ff1/ff1classes.gif

Fighter/Knight:
The Fighter is a Final Fantasy Icon.  I also think he looks a little bit like a rooster.  He's got the highest defense, hit points and can equip the strongest gear.  He is the strongest attacker for the first half of the game, but he is eclipsed by the Black Belt/Master in attack power, and finishes up second.  The hardiness and consistency of the Fighter makes him hard to leave out of any party.  However, he's also a bit of a money-sink, since he requires all the top-notch gear.  The upgrade to the Knight doesn't really do much, it adds white magic up to level 3, but by the time you get the upgrade, spells from those levels don't have much effect.


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The World Baseball Classic is going on right now

Hey there everyone.  I'm going to take a minute to talk about sports, which are games.  Specifically Baseball, my personal favorite of sports.  For those of you who see video and card games as a refuge from the wide world of sports - I don't blame you, and please don't worry:  this post doesn't represent a tidal shift in the content of my writing.  I just want to be able to talk about sports sometimes, which, as I mentioned, are games after all.  

So, there's this thing going on, it's called the World Baseball Classic.  I found out about it because an Android application I have called Bleacher Report - has been mentioning it a bunch.  At first I responded with: 'who cares?'  Something about it just didn't seem genuine.  I think it was an example of: 'well I've never heard of it, so it must not be good (or important).'  This is an attitude I'm not proud of, but I do demonstrate it sometimes.  When I realize this, I usually feel a sense of irony, because I actually have an interest in showing people things they may not have heard of ie:  Independent Games.

What caused me to give the World Baseball Classic a second look is when I realized how many American Major League Baseball stars were going to be playing in it - but not for America.   Teams from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico and even Canada each have MLB stars on their teams.  This I found interesting - not only does the American MLB employ a great number of international players, but some of those players are really good, and they present a real threat to America's ability to win this tournament.

So, about the World Baseball Classic.  This is the third such 'classic' - so the name may seem premature.  But it was originally associated with Olympic Baseball and the World Cup of Baseball.  I didn't know there was a World Cup of Baseball, but my experience following the FIFA World Cup (Soccer) in 2010 was very exciting, and I am happy to see my favorite sport is participating on the world stage.  The World Baseball classic is small - 16 teams, four divisions of four teams apiece.  Fully half the size of the last FIFA World Cup.  But I have hope that it will expand.  Another bit of information:  Japan won the first two tournaments, and is the favorite to win this one as well.  One more bit;  the US has not gotten any medals yet.  This last piece, I enjoy greatly.  

There is a certain sort of dominant attitude, I have found associated with sports in the US, that really bothers me.   A sort of American Exceptionalism that makes me feel like a jerk just by association.  I get a smug joy out of seeing the US struggle in the FIFA World Cup. This feeling is a combination of light disdain, at what I perceive as a bullying attitude from US sports enthusiasts,  and satisfaction that resting on those laurels does not win the US any medals. In addition, there is a distant feeling that a thing that must be worked for will be that much more satisfying when it is earned. 

I get a similar feeling knowing that the US has not gotten any medals in the World Baseball Classic.  But this time it is couched in the fact that Baseball itself is an original American sport.  And it happens to be my favorite of sports.  And the US is home for the biggest and most lucrative baseball association in the world, the MLB.  So, in a sense, the US is always playing the role of 'host' to the World Baseball Classic, because the very existence of said tournament means that there are other countries - at least 15 other countries, around the world that are serious about playing Baseball.  

It is at this point that the warm fuzzies start to set in.  I am happy that the country in which I live is sharing this game that I love with the rest of the world.  It's like throwing a successful party.  People show up, and they like the snacks, and the activities, and they mingle and everyone is happy.  The US team doesn't need to dominate, I am content that the game is popular enough to have a competitive international tournament.  

So, for this reason, 'for love of the game,'  I want to see the World Baseball Classic get some press and viewership.  Currently, it competes with MLB spring training, which perhaps isn't so good.  It is still a young tournament, and I hope that the WBC will grow and thrive, and be a source of entertainment, inspiration and joy for many.  

-D

My Brief History With PAX

I have Chreekat to thank for my indoctrination into the Penny-Arcade world as well as PAX and also becoming an [Enforcer].  In late summer 2007, Chreekat drove off to Seattle, WA during Labor Day weekend to be an [Enforcer] at the Penny-Arcade Expo, all of which was foreign to me.  Except Labor Day, I knew what that was when I wasn't getting it confused with Memorial Day.  Which I still do, all the time.

Jump forward to early/mid 2008 and I was given the opportunity to become an [Enforcer], and if you didn't click on the above link, an [Enforcer] is a volunteer who helps out the people running PAX.  You are assigned to a specific department such as PC Gaming, Tabletop Gaming, Handheld Gaming, Current Console Gaming, Registration, Information Desk, et cetera.  For my first year, I request to be put into Handheld Gaming as that was where my current video gaming knowledge was firmly based.  Thankfully I was placed in Handheld Gaming and worked the 9pm - 3am shift, which was perfectly fine with me.  The remainder of the day was spent walking around the expo halls and Spare Boarding (which is like working in any department that needs extra hands at a particular time).

PAX08 was a blast, in short.  I was able to meet Jerry Holkins, one of the creators of Penny-Arcade (Jerry, some other [Enforcers] and myself were looking for a steam punk themed Penny-Arcade cake that was thought to have been stolen, but was found a few minutes later); I saw Felicia Day and Sandeep Parikh just walking around (when they weren't at their booth or during panels) and along with a hundred or so other people was at a bar (after the setting up for the convention the day before it opened) saw Wil Wheaton.  I was also able to meet up with one of my friends SneakyTiki [I was in charge of letting the first groups of people through a set of doors which lead to the Expo Hall (a hell of a first job mind you)].

To say that PAX09 was a lot of the same as PAX08 is selling it short, even though it kind of was.  Does that diminish how awesome the expo itself was? Hell. No.  The differences were that the convention itself was bigger, more of the Seattle Convention Center was able to be used, all new games were demoed/exposed/played; I saw The Legend of Neil at a panel with Sandeep Parikh and Tony Janning.  I worked again in Handheld  and I didn't feel like a complete n00b.  This was also the year that Rabies came up with ConSARS, a quickly developed contagion-type game on the third day of the convention.  Coincidentally enough, that was the year that 50+ people at the convention came down with H1N1 (swine flu).

PAX Prime 2010 (2010 was the first year of PAX East in Boston) I was moved to Classic Console, which plays games from older systems such as the NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Atari 2600.  You know, "classic" console video games.  I was initially sad leaving the people in Handheld that I'd been working with for two conventions, but I still had a blast in CC.  PAX10 I probably spent the most time out-and-about and less time hanging out in the department I was working when I wasn't working.  I was also able to meet up for sushi with my friend Taylor (she doesn't have a handle as far as I know) who lived in Seattle.  PAX10 definitely felt lower key than the previous two conventions, but not any less fun.

PAX Prime 2011 I wasn't able to attend for a number of reasons.  The first being that I was low on money after having recently moved from Woodland, CA to Portland, OR and I couldn't afford to drive/fly/train up to Seattle.  I had also started a job at an assisted living facility and didn't think that I would be able to request and receive four days off from work.

PAX Prime 2012 begins today and goes through Sunday September 2nd.  I am sadly unable to attend this year for slightly different reasons.  Mainly money issues, which always suck, but whatever.  My girlfriend Conklederp told me yesterday that I'm going to go to PAX next year (assuming that the world doesn't end in less than four months) and I'm afraid that I have to agree with her.  I'll be putting in my time off request once PAX Prime 2013 is announced.  I'll be looking forward to finding out what department I'll be working in and it really is a tough choice between Handheld and Classic Console (although I could double up and request to work both departments and do a double shift).

To everyone at PAX right now, have fun and with luck, I'll be joining you again in 2013.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Insert Line From Schwarzenegger's Best Film

Emulator Hour: 3D Classics - Kid Icarus (3DS)

I previously mentioned (somewhere) that I played Kid Icarus a bit on the NES but that I apparently really sucked.  I had said that Eggplant Wizard was really annoying when he turned you into a walking/floating eggplant, but now that I'm going through the game again, I don't think I even made it so far as to go up against such a necromantic angiosperm.  Which brings me to the point of today's ramblings: I recently purchased 3D Classics - Kid Icarus through Nintendo's eShop on my 3DS.  

In short 3D Classics - Kid Icarus is an updated port of the Kid Icarus that was released on the NES 26 years ago, in 1986.  "Updated" in that the backgrounds are now matte paintings with some motion that are used to help create a layering 3D effect while nearly everything in the foreground are the original 8-bit NES level-era sprites.  Even the music is the same as the 8-bit original soundtrack, but without the silencing of one of the three audio tracks to make way for random sound effects like jumping, shooting your arrows, collecting hearts or enemies dying.

From what I remembered of Kid Icarus, it was a combination of Metroid and Super Mario Bros.  This has held true as I went through the first level.  And promptly died three times while trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.  I would've hoped/liked it if with the purchase of games from Nintendo's eShop, a virtual instruction book was also included.  In the meantime, the internet will have to do to know what the Donkey Kong Hammer and Barrel are used for.

The beginning of Kid Icarus starts out with the main character Pit (is that short for Icarus, or is "Kid Icarus" a given title?) somewhere that's reminiscent of Hades as there's rivers of fire in the background and flying one eyed demon things, which is never a good thing.  Oh, and snakes too.  It plays like a vertical scroller (like side-scrolling, but going up and not being able to go back down into a bottomless pit) although I assume once you exit the Underworld that you'll be able to go through traditional side-scrolling levels.  And your wings, yeah, they're currently just for looks.  You can "buy" the single use ability to save yourself from falling into a pit, which is like Princess Toadstool's hover ability in Super Mario Bros. 2.  But again, it's a single use only item, kind of like an insurance policy against falling.

Moving onto the game itself.  I died quite a number of times at first, which means I had to start over from the beginning each time.  Turns out you only have one life to give for your goddess Palutena.  After death, you have to start the stage from the beginning, or wherever your last save point was, which are at the end of each level.  It wasn't until after I had died at least twice that I realized you can shoot your arrows up instead of just right and left.  So all this was somewhat of a minor shock, but not at all hampering in my liking of the game.  It basically lets you go through levels until you're proficient at killing enemies without dying.  At the same time, it can be really frustrating getting through a rough patch, then into a new area of the same level and then dying, only to have to go through the level again to figure out what went wrong.

The music is about the same as I remember it.  But as I'm still in the first stage (1-3 currently), the background music has yet to change, so it's been the same catchy song for the 54 minutes I've been playing. Even though I have the soundtrack, I'm going to make it a point to not listen to the music so that I can be pleasantly surprised when I get to new stages and thus, new music.  That's just how I am.

All-in-all though, the difficulty of the game (not Ninja Gaiden difficulty mind you) is not going to deter me from completing the game.  Or at least doing my damnedest to complete it.  Stupid Eggplant Wizard.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

"Look at me father, I'm flying!  I'm like a bird!  A true king of the air."