MIDI Week Singles: "Glider" - Pilotwings Resort (3DS)

"Glider" from Pilotwings Resort on the Nintendo 3DS (2011)
Released: Promotional Release
Composer: Asuka Ito
Developer: Monster Games / Nintendo SPD

Before I picked up the N64 Pilotwings soundtrack, I would have told you that this composition for the 3DS was a great arranged version of that song.  What I was actually hearing was an entirely new song, similar in style and flavor to Dan Hess' compositions from the N64 game, but a new song all together.  And a beautiful, slightly jazzy (Is it jazzy?, I don't actively listen to jazz) song this is too.

This just felt like the right song to go with on an overcast cool (presently 69° F, or 21° C) Portland morning and I'd been wanting to put this song up for a while.  

I find this song to be a great mix of melody, one that you can recall to memory and hum/whistle and calming enough while you try and aim your hang glider towards the next thermal so that you can climb towards the floating landing platform.  If Nintendo wanted to be jerks they could have had someone else compose some raucous tune to keep you on edge or feeling frantic as you circle your way up the thermals.  But no, instead we are given this soothing jazzy (there's that jazz again) little number that I would want pumped in over some sort of speaker device the next (and first) time I go hang gliding.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I Couldn't Escape the Memory

Things that Kind of Went on at E3: 2015 Re-Edition

I've had this banner-thing lying around since 2013 and I figured that either I used it or throw it in the local incinerator.  If you didn't know, we're all about recycling here up here in the PNW.  I'm not going to bore you with a breakdown of the most interesting games for each system or show you a scientific ranking based on the amount of endothermic radiation tabulated during each presentation.  I will bore you with a generic list of games that caught my attention (based on my own pre-existing personal tastes) while looking over what happened during the last four days from this three day convention of this Electronic Entertainment Exposition for consumers.

ADR1FT: Sounds like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but in space.  Which I am perfectly okay with.

Attractio: An FPS puzzle platformer that, by description alone, sounds similar to Portal.

Bravely Second: End Layer: The sequel to Bravely: Default, of which I still have yet to play, but the demo kept me entertained.

Catadoomed: An interesting game for Android devices that is available now (I just downloaded it) and it's free, so why not at least try it out.

Dark Souls III: Thanks to Extra Credits' "Side Quest" series, Dark Souls has its proverbial hooks in me once again.

Doom: What made me sad about seeing the gameplay footage, was that I felt that some of the animations would now no longer be a surprise.  For example, I saw the same chainsaw cutting-in-half animation at least twice and thought, "Oh, it's this one again then?"

Dragon Quest Heroes: Apparently there's going to be another Dragon Quest game, although this one's a PS4 exclusive and by the description at box art, looks like Dissidia: Final Fantasy, but with characters, or shall I say, heroes from the various Dragon Quest games.

Dreams: A PS4 exclusive and an interesting concept if done the way I think it should be done.

Earthbound: Beginnings: A Wii U virtual console exclusive of Mother (1989, Famicom), which boggles me a bit as to why it's not coming out for 3DS virtual console either.  Although I never did play Earthbound on the SNES.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends: A free to play TGC from Dire Wolf Studios and published by Bethesda.  I will reserve judgement until after I play, but I probably will play it on PC as the only other mentioned platform will be iOS.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture: I am still sad that I may never get to play this game (PS4 only), but I've loved what the people at The Chinese Room have done with Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.  And EGtoR now has a release date of August 11, 2015.

Fallout 4: I feel caught up in the excitement machine with this game seeing as how I've played on the first Fallout, and not ever to completion.

Fallout Shelter: An iOS game that I may have to have Conklederp download to her iPad.  I like the idea of a micro SimCity-type post-apocalyptic simulator.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water: Kind of surprised that this is a Nintendo Wii U title with a very Japanese theme.  You use the Wii U pad while exploring/detectivizing a forest where people have been committing suicide.

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Yeah, yeah I know, it's on every other E3 list out there, why shouldn't it be on ours?  What interested me was the mention of changes/additions to the plot.  And even though the trailer says "Play it first on Playstation 4," I feel that that hints to a PC release as well.

Guided Meditation VR: An interesting concept with Oculus Rift support that is ready to play now via the game's website.  

Horizon Zero Dawn: I liked the setting and the idea based on the trailer (post-apocalypse meets The World Without Us meets the Monster Hunter franchise).  The "in-game" sequence got me a little concerned that the unnamed protagonist would actually talk to herself throughout the course of the game; an attempt at co-op play (as in announcer commentary?) in a single player game?  I'm not sure.

King's Quest: Yet another classic game that I have never played any iteration of, but this remake/reboot/update might be either the first I play or I'll go back and dabble in the old ways.

The Last Guardian:  I recall seeing something about this game around the time of PS4 being launched (I lied, it was back in 2011) and it looks like this PS4 exclusive has finally reached a point where it might actually get to be released.  This trailer almost makes me consider buying/acquiring a PS4.

The Legend of Legacy:  Yeah, I'm a sucker for JRPGs.  That's pretty much all I have to say here.

Mad Max: Post-Apocalyptic open world game in the Mad Max universe?  Yeah, I'll play that.

The Manus: A sleeker, sexier (but who are we kidding!?) version of the Power Glove.  Spiffy idea, but I get the feeling that it's a limited market.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst: As long as I don't dread the run-and-gun gauntlet stages and the fighting mechanic has improved (ie: I don't suck using the fighting mechanics designed for the game), I will be very happy.

NieR New Project: Apparently this is a sequel (not officially named) to NieR, and the game looks. . .nice?  I don't know really how else to describe anything about this.  The design and look of the game are pretty much all that is presented in the trailer, and not having played the first game (which will be unconnected to this one), I would have no qualms about starting here, if it is released on PC.

Overkill's The Walking Dead:  The trailer was pretty god damn intense and I'm assuming it was only there to set the mood, considering that this is supposed to be an FPS co-op game (Left 4 Dead in The Walking Dead universe I presume).  Hopefully it's better than the Dixon Brothers Walking Dead game that I never played.

RareReplay: I really love this idea of bundling a bunch (here it's upwards of 30) games from a studio's library, but I will be sad about this because it's an Xbox One exclusive.  Which, probably also means that there will be no Donkey Kong Country included here, but that's only a guess.  And it looks like Goldeneye 007 isn't included either, otherwise, one would assume, that it would have made it into the trailer.

ReCore: About time for another Xbox One exclusive that peaked my interest.

Star Fox Zero:  It's Star Fox and I would probably want to play it if we owned (someone gave us) a Wii U.

Super Mario Maker:  I love the idea of creating your own levels in a Super Mario game, until I immediately remember that general skulldickery will be responsible for the majority of the levels being made.  I can only hope that in order to either submit, publish, or complete making a level, the designer has to be able to make it through their monstrous demonseed creation.  And since it's a Wii U exclusive, I probably won't have to experience said skulldickery.

Tearaway Unfolded: A PS4 only title here that looks like Little Big Planet (same studio) and the trailer did what it was supposed to do.

The Uncertain:  There's a robot wandering around a house in what is described as a post-apocalyptic setting.  Yeah, I'm kind of a sucker.

Unravel: Little Big Planet meets LIMBO meets Yoshi's Wooly World.

Until Dawn: Another PS4 exclusive (bloody 'ell) that looks like Cabin in the Woods with some Tell Tale Games illusion of choice decision making; surveillance monitors and all.

What Remains of Edith Finch:  Yup, you guessed it, PS4 only.  I like the idea of playing as different members of the same family over generations (Eternal Darkness).

Whew!  That was a lot longer than I had initially intended, but there it is.  There were many more games presented in their varying states of completeness, so you're welcome to check out the full list of games at E3 this year.  There were also a handful of games that I was initially interested in until I looked at them beyond their title (World of Final Fantasy, Sea of Thieves, Metroid Prime: Federation Force, The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes, Hyrule Warriors Legends) and then I decided that I wasn't as interested as I was hoping to be, all due to one reason or another (maybe a later post). I'm going to go drink a pot of coffee now.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

 Instrumental

Monthly Update: June, 2015

Happy June everyone!  Unless June is an unhappy month for you, so in that case, "HAPPY JUNE EVERYONE ELSE!  And you too."

So updates from our gaming worlds it is now that we're on to talking about.

Within the realm of Dungeons & Dragons, I've come to the realization that I need to work on describing environments that the PCs are in when there are no descriptions prewritten from the module.  Sure I've got maps and whatnot, but for when the PCs are traversing along a well traveled road from morning to night through the grasslands of Faerûn, I need to do more than say "After you wake up, you continue traveling south along the road.  (Sound of a die rolling). . .The weather throughout the day is fairly windy and (die rolling). . . is uneventful.  You make it to about. . .here on the map by nightfall."  I also need to do a better job at describing enemies rather than by their name.  "A twig blight scuttles out of the bushes and goes after Dagnar."  I also feel that I should have a random name generator up because the few people that I've given names too have been "Joe" and "Bobby."

But Conklederp reminds me that people keep coming back so I must not be doing that bad of a job DMing descriptions.

I managed to finish Silent Hill on the PSP late last month.  It was about as stressful as I was expecting and after just over nine hours, I was able to see the fruits of my fingering labors.  There will be an article later in the week or the beginning of next week, somewhat akin to the Dead Space articles about my experience with the game rather than directly about the game.  It did come out 16 years ago after all.

I've also managed to progress a bit in Radiant Historia on the 3DS although I still find that I'm overthinking things as far as time travel and parallel universes.

In the PC gaming arena, Conklederp and I have been playing the proverbial fecal matter out of The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited.  Last week alone we clocked in around 17+ hours traversing the vast swaths of High Rock and portions of Hammerfell.  I don't know if we will keep pace this week as I have a lot of real world work I have to finish.

Lastly, there are going to be some changes coming up this month that DRoBOTTS and I have been working on for just about the last month.  We're both happy to see this happen (no we're not monetizing and no we were not bought out for 4.7 million after a tense bidding war between PC Gamer and Gamespot), so stay tuned for more vague updates.  I'm sure you'll enjoy our cryptic ramblings as much as we've had creating them.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Oughta Get Going

Monthly Update: May 2015

Happy May, or I guess "May the 4th be with you."  I'm sure y'all've already checked out the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer #2 by now and even if you have, it wouldn't hurt to watch it again. . .for the 47th time. . .this week.  There're also apparently some new pictures up from the movie which may or may not contain spoilers.  Ye've been warned. . .arrrr. 

Reaction to Konami cancelling
Silent Hills.  Decency people!
(Public posts means I don't have to
black out names).

Aside from that, it's been an interesting month in the Land of Gaming where apparently a fair amount of people were pissed off at one person or another for any reason or another.  There's been the Silent Hills cancellation, and Valve allowing modders to charge for use of their mods in Skyrim (but only if they want to charge) then nixing that idea after less than a week. On Friday however, and on a happier note, (so technically May) the splinters from Rare who created Playtonic have started a Kickstarter for their game Yooka-Laylee (which is, as of this writing, 412% over their target goal of $270,041 and it's been less than 12 hours since their email announcement).  And there's Rare's announcement that they've been working on something that's been a lot of fun for them that will be announced at E3 next month.

But that's all well and good for the rest of the world, but what about little ol' me?  I've been keeping pace with course work which has left some time for putzing around with a couple of video games, this time across multiple platforms.

I've gotten back into playing the Atlus time travelling multiverse fantasy game Radiant Historia, which originally came out on the DS back in 2011.  The game can be a bit overwhelming with multiple timelines and people/items/skills that you might need to learn in an alternate timeline before continuing with your current timeline.  At the moment I'm only transitioning between two separate outcomes, but I have  feeling that things will begin to branch off in the next chapter or two.  Thankfully you have the ability to speed through conversations that you've had umpteen times before and the music is good as far as JRPG soundtracks go.  I'll stick this one out until the end, barring any 4 Heroes of Light graves that I manage to dig myself into.

On the PC gaming front, I'm finishing up Borderlands (the first game) and I recently started Mass Effect 2.  My first off is that Borderlands is a great FPS with a crappily weak story.  Mass Effect 2 is a great story with too much online emphasis about who Shepard is going to doink.  Who Shepard (male or female) ends up with relationship-wise and what is unlocked in Mass Effect 3 based on your relationship choices from the previous two games seems a bit overwhelming on top of trying to save the galaxy.  It's almost like in order to experience the "full" game, you have to have a separate save file for each decision regardless if you have the option of using a paragon/renegade response; basically like in Radiant Historia.  And then there's Miranda, who apparently is nude with painted on clothing that is frequently emphasized by the camera panning or holding over her gluteal maximal region.  I know body paint's a thing, I saw a video about it once.

Lastly, and back to handheld, is Silent Hill (1999) which I'm playing on the PSP, influenced from all of the Dead Space posts last month.  Presently my biggest complaint is that the game screen doesn't take up all of the PSP screen that it should be able to.   There is an empty black space around the entire gaming-viewing window when it looks like the viewable window could have been stretched out diagonally in both directions by a couple of more pixels.  I've actually been conversing with Dr. Potts textually while playing and it's very reminiscent of 1999 when we were living in the same abode and would frequently talk to each other about where we were at in our respective games.  It was nice.  I should probably also check to make sure he has an unlimited texting plan, or I'll just revert to Google's Hangout app which Chreekat inadvertently introduced me to last week.

Leading up to the December release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, my unofficial plan is to finish Star Wars: Dark Forces and start another of the Star Wars games that Humble Bundle bundled together a few months back.  There might even be a "Why A Star Wars Game?" post somewhere in there as well.

Oh, and D&D has now reached a "regular basis" status for which I am very grateful.  Maybe a post in there about this as well later in the month.  Although I should probably get everyone to sign a release form, but being the DM, I can always make up some threats.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

A Feast of Friends

Game Review: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (3DS)

This article started out as a "First Impressions," but 52 hours later, I feel like I have gone a bit beyond simply "first" and now I am into full on "Game Review" mode, but not a "Full Review."

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call is the sequel to the 3DS music/rhythm game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy that was released by Square Enix back in 2012.  I reviewed that game and was apparently pretty harsh (or at least I think I was), but since then, I grew to love that first game and almost everything that is done here in the sequel has been an improvement over the first game.

First off, if you have not purchased either game and you are on the fence, I would recommend buying only Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call (hereafter referred to as TFFCC), not because the TFF is a inferior game, but because TFFCC does everything that TFF does but it also gives you access to over 100 songs right off the bat.  By the time you reach roughly eight to ten hours, you will have unlocked all 221 songs, whereas in TFF you have access to about 80 songs.

TFFCC also pulls music from a lot more sources than the first game.  New to the sequel are songs from Final Fantasy I - XIV, Final Fantasy Tactics, Mystic Quest, Crystal Chronicles, X-2, Advent Children, Crisis Core, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, Dissidia and Dissidia 012 [duodecim], Type-0, XIII-2, Lightning Returns.  There are downloadable songs which you can purchase at $0.99 a piece, but are from various Square Enix games like Xenogears, The World Ends With You, Chrono Trigger, Romancing SaGa 1 - 3, SaGa Frontier, Final Fantasy Adventure, Seiken Densetsu 3, Secret of Mana and Bravely Default.

The mode of play is pretty much identical to TFF although I have noticed that battle music stages (usually battle music) seem easier while the field music stages (typically overworld and dungeon music) and the event music stages (themes played over in-game cinematics) are more difficult.  I've noticed that I have received a "Bad" rating while holding my stylus over the green slider (the one where you hold and follow the path during the field music stages), possibly because I wasn't holding the target up/down enough in the direction that the path was going (??).  

Another addition that I did not think that I would initially like is the online battle system where you can engage in a 1:1 battle with another player either locally, domestically, internationally, or against a computer AI if you are unable to connect with other players (or if you just do not want to).  Battles are run like a standard battle music stage with your party of four characters going up against random monsters as well as a boss-type monster (Kefka, Cagnazzo, The Undying, et cetera).  After a certain number of successful hits, you perform one of nine attacks on the other player that have varying effects such as having the notes/triggers move faster, having them move at varying speeds; needing to hit the note/trigger precisely (critical hit) otherwise it is counted as "Bad;" having the notes/triggers show a question mark until right before you have to tap them so you don't know if it's a regular tap or an arrow swipe; having the arrow triggers spin which makes anticipating which direction they will be pointing when you have to swipe them pretty difficult.  Basically you are messing with the other person while they mess with you and whomever has the most points at the end of the battle wins points (bragging points) and in-game collectable cards.

In TFFCC, I have noticed that some songs are used in the BMS's such as "Aerith's Theme" or "Final Fantasy Theme (FF XII Version)" which are not battle themes, but I am guessing were included in this category so you could use them in battles.

In TFFCC, cinematics were removed from a lot of the games in the series (FF I - XIII), but some of those that were included (Final Fantasy Tactics) were very short, lasting less than two minutes and having just over 50 notes to tap, which seemed kind of sad and useless.  Another criticism I have is that while there are a lot more characters to choose from, there are some characters that have doubles due to them appearing different in different games (Tifa from FF VII and the film Advent Children; Lightning from FF XIII and FF XIII-2).  Personally I would have like to have had additional characters from Final Fantasy (White Mage), Final Fantasy IV (Cid or Yang), Final Fantasy VI (Shadow, Setzer or Realm), or Final Fantasy VII (Red XIII).

Overall, I love this game and listening to the music from a number of the games in the Final Fantasy series that I have not played (VIII, X, X-2, XIII, Chocobo Dungeons, Type-0, Crystal Chronicles) definitely makes me want to go back and play these games.  Well played Square Enix marketing department.  Additionally, I began thinking of all the Nintendo game series that have great music that I would love to see implemented in this style: Dragon Quest/Warrior, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong (Donkey Konga does not count).  Granted there would have to be some tweaking since not all are turn-based RPGs, but something similar could be thought of for any one of these games and I, along with a good portion of the video game music loving community who own 3DS', would buy these games up in very near to a heartbeat.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Realm of the King of Fantasy

Full Review: Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DS)

So I finished Weapon Shop de Omasse the other night, and then I finished it an additional four times the next day, but I will get to that later on.  This game was created by developer Level 5 (Professor Layton series, Starship Damrey) and conceptualized by Japanese comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai and that comedic sense and timing comes across frequently during the game, referencing both video game culture and TV culture; "I stick them with the. . .which end was it?" said one generic NPC during a battle.

Gameplay

As stated a few weeks back, Weapon Shop de Omasse is a comedic blacksmithing parody simulation of traditional JRPGs.  The game is spent between a number of mini-game-esque type tasks. 

1) Smithing: You are able to create various types of weapons (Sword, Dagger, Spear, Axe, Dao, Club, et cetera).  You strike the chunk of heated metal to a musical theme that is associated with a Hero character.  It basically acts like a rhythm matching/mimicking game, but you have to strike the metal in different areas and "carve" away the unwanted material in order to get the shape of the specific weapon you are creating.  While smithing, you also have to keep an eye on the temperature of the metal because if it cools down too much, the metal will not be as malleable and you will fail in your smithing task.

Chaining hammer falls will increase the bonus to whichever attribute
the game currently wants to assign your bonus to.

Smithing is actually where I had the biggest issue.  As you complete a musical phrase, you add a certain attribute (slash, pierce or bludgeon) bonus to that weapon although I was never able to figure out how the game decided to choose which attribute was going to be assigned.  For example, I would be smithing an axe that would need to have a high slashing attribute and the first two "chains" on a musical phrase would add points to slash, but then for the rest of the song, points would go to pierce and bludgeon.  Upon finishing, each weapon is rated (Lame, Not Bad, Good, Great) and if the weapon's primary attribute was rated as "Lame," your weapon would often be classified as "Dull," which is not something you want an axe you crafted for your Grandmother who is questing to find her husband to be swinging around.  I am positive I must have missed something early on in the game when this was explained, so that is my own loss.

2) Polishing: Once a weapon is created or returned, you have to polish it back to its presentable beauty.  Polishing also buffs a weapon's attributes (slash, pierce, bludgeon) by about 10 points in each category., you Weapons of various types and strengths are unlocked as the owner of the shop buys additional materials which allow you to create new weapons as well as your customers who return their rented weapons along with some items used to modify the weapons you make.

The rest of the game is spent keeping track of which weapons you have in stock, which weapons you need to make for heroes who have put in orders to be picked up later, and what materials you currently have in stock to create the aforementioned weapons.

Story

The story in Omasse, is a very stereotypical one for people who have played a JRPG or twelve: Small village near "Starting City" where you play as Yhan, an apprentice to the local master blacksmith, Oyaji where customers come in and rent weapons to complete quests in anticipation of the returning Dark Lord and his minions.  Yuhan and Oyaji have a subtle comedic relationship, but the majority of the laughs come from Oyaji's blunt reaction to characters who enter the shop.

There are a number of hero characters who have their own individual stories, which are fairly amusing and at times I often felt like a bartender, hearing them talk about some aspect of their lives and the particular quest they were going on.  And while you do deal with the hero characters, the other half of the time you deal with generic NPCs (which I found odd that they were all male where as there is one transgender and four female hero characters) who acknowledge the fact that they are not heros by saying things like, "Wouldn't you rather rent this out to a real character?" and "I like repeating the same actions!"

The Grindcast, which you can select a single person to read their feed.
Some characters will also use hashtags like #weaponreviews.

Half of the story is told by the face-t0-face interactions in the store while the other half is through a game mechanic called the "Grindcast."  Grind referring to the JRPG aspect of games grinding for levels between story points and Cast from, I am assuming, podcasts.  The characters are told that there is a device on each weapon that allows the people in the shop to keep track of them on their quest and the weapons.  The Grindcast plays in the background too while you perform various tasks around the shop (smithing, polishing, inventory management) and it can be kind of hard to keep track of what the heros are up to while also paying attention to smithing that wavy-bladed flamberge.  There will also be times when unlabeled and unknown characters' quest updates will appear on the Grindcast, but these are not explained and they come across as just general chatter.

[no_spoilers]There were two separate and unrelated story elements that I was surprised that the game took.  The first I saw coming but was still surprised that it happened, knowing that the "traditional American producer" would say that the audience would not want to see that happen to a character.  The second event I did not see coming at all and felt it was rather abrupt.  Upon later reflection, it made a little bit of sense, but it felt a little out of place.  That is all I will say[/no_spoilers].

Master Blacksmith Oyaji.
Proper protection is necessary around the forge.

Graphics

With the exception of some of the design for one of the hero characters, I was overall very happy with the overall look of the game.  Being on the 3DS, I was not going in expecting modded Skyrim level of graphics, but you could say that based on the title screen, I was expecting something more akin to Akira Toriyama with a little bit less in the spikey hair department.  There was one character who did look like they could have come from a Dragon Warrior game as the best friend or part time sidekick of Loto/Erdrick.

3D Effectiveness

The 3D effect worked very well for the majority of the game.  Most of the time I had the slider at about 50-75%.  My favorite part was looking over the various weapons I had created with the slider on, but seeing as how NPCs or heroes would frequently walk into the shop or I had weapons to forge or polish, there did not leave a whole lot of time (when I thought about it) to admire my handiwork.

Music & Sound

Since at least half of the smithing aspect of the game involved hammering out weapons to music, the music would have to be catchy enough not to become annoying; pretty much what every overworld and battle music in every RPG ever has to strive to achieve.  Each style of weapon would have a specific song associated with it and while the songs became repetitive pretty early on, the rhythm that you had to hammer out changed depending on the level of the weapon; higher level weapons mean a more complicated rhythm.

Some of the songs associated with the characters are rather silly and probably should not be taken too seriously, but if you are already in the mindset that this is a comedic game, then you will be right at home with the tunes.

Something else I found to be interesting was that there was no vocal localization for English speaking countries (not that everything has to be English-centric).  All of the spoken dialogue in the game, which came from Oyaji, is all spoken in Japanese.  I know can make the general sounds associated with "Lame, Not Bad" and "Great."  There are other praises/scolds you are given upon completing each weapon and you can tell by the inflection in Oyaji's voice if he is pleased or not.  You can also assume that a dull weapon should not be part of the store's inventory.  I was and am very glad that the games spoken dialogue was not localized, but then again I tend to favor original language and subtitles over dubbed versions of anything anyhow.

Final Thoughts

So the game took about 15 hours to complete and as far as I can tell, that will be about the average amount it takes in order to beat the game every time as the events are scripted and even if you make weapons faster than I did, it will not mean that they will be rented out and returned any faster.  Some people, who are better blacksmiths than I and better judges of character when choosing which weapon to rent out may not take as long as hero quests are repeated until they succeed and advance their story.

An additional 11 hours have not changed my high recommendation for Weapon Shop de Omasse one bit as I still would recommend it to anyone with a 3DS.  While the game became tedious at points and frustrating trying to figure out why my weapons were coming out dull or when my money became so low that I couldn't afford to but the highest level materials to make the strongest weapons for the higher level quests heros and NPCs needed to accomplish in order to help make the weapon shop money so they could afford to by better materials to make better weapons. . .and so on and so forth.  

But what is a fun and memorable game without a little bit of work and frustration?  Not worth playing in my opinion.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Fighting for Survival

Playing PC Games on the 3DS.

In Dr. Potts' recent Pak Watch post, he mentioned two games that are some damn fine looking 16-bit era games reminiscent of two of my favorite series: Castlevania and The Legend of Zelda.  This got me to thinking about my recent experience with VVVVVV on the 3DS and how I know that the 3DS hardware could handle these games and how much fun they would be to play on the go.

So naturally I go to see what the possibilities are with playing existing PC games through an emulator on my 3DS.  

Apparently, there are no options.  Or at least none that I was able to find.

There is the Ri 4Gold card to play NES games on the 3DS, but that's not exactly what I was looking for.  And I am not looking to play Skyrim or Amnesia, but games that would translate well to a small screen.  Games like Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, Guacamelee and Full Bore. Games like Slain and Courier of the Crypts.  Additionally, I don't think that these games have to have an official Nintendo eShop release with full 3D capabilities either (although all mentioned games modified for 3D would be admittedly pretty awesome if done correctly).

The closest thing I was able to find for was how to transfer videos from the PC to the 3DS and while that's not really what I was looking for, it might be something to look into if I get the time and brainpower to figure it all out.

So this is where I am at, at the moment.  It's not that there aren't enough good games out or coming out on the 3DS that I am starting to look to other sources, but there are games that I feel that I would enjoy a lot more if I did not have to play them on or through a PC; even if that PC is HDMI'd through the TV and I am using a controller (still looking at you Super Meat Boy).

This is apparently all that my brain can muster at the moment and rather than pad this thing out to what would visually look like enough meat for this post-sandwich, I'm going to call it and send it to the printer before anything weird starts to happen, if it hasn't happened already.

We'll see you on the flip side of a sunny-side-up egg.  Oh, and a side of house browns with a cup of coffee, black.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
[SPOILER]

Second Impressions: VVVVVV (3DS)

I say "Second" because Dr. Potts had already created a First Impressions about a year and-a-half ago, but I found it on sale through Nintendo's eShop a few weeks back for a price I couldn't refuse.  I have also been wanting to play it on my 3DS for a good long while after only being able to play it on my PC for a measly 25 minutes.  I enjoyed the game enough during the first stage in the ship, but once I left the ship I felt overwhelmed by the minimalist aspect of the game combined with the apparent size of the map as well as playing an Atari/NES era styled game on the PC.  I also felt demoralized upon finding out that the game kept track of how often I died.  

My death count was upwards of 80+ after not even 30 minutes.

I don't remember when I last played VVVVVV on the PC since Steam for some reason doesn't have that information available (maybe there's it loses track after a year of inactivity?), but when I saw it on sale in the eShop last month, I quickly picked it up.  There's just something about the 3DS handheld platform that made the game seem like it would be more approachable and somehow less intimidating.  Additionally, the 3D effect in the stills through the eShop looked good and I feel that VVVVVV lends itself very well to being converted to 3D.

While there are some differences between the 3DS port and the PC version,  such as altering the graininess of the screen, the biggest difference is that you cannot create custom levels; you can, however play other player (from where?) created levels.  It is not clear if these levels are pre installed or if you can acquire them throughout the game or if the game is updated with new user levels to play.  So far, I haven't found these differences to be detrimental to my feelings about the game or how it plays.

So far I have been having as much fun as I wanted to have in the PC version.  The controls are about as basic as it gets and the response is perfect without any lag.  The 3D effect also looks great with the backgrounds being pulled back from the Captain and the platforms in the foreground.  The music too is identical to that of the PC game and absolutely not loss in sound quality so Souleye's work can be enjoyed unhindered with the rest of the game.  I have nothing negative about this game in this format.

Enjoying VVVVVV as much as I have on the 3DS has made me wonder if I would like Super Meat Boy more than I have if I were to also have access to it on the 3DS platform.  Somehow I do not see the goriness of that game getting by Nintendo's eShop custodians, but I guess stranger things have happened, so we will just have to wait and see.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

Emulator Hour: Mega Man 3 (NES/3DS)

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I am finishing up today's post from the Aéroport de Bürbànk and sitting less than a foot away from a bin de trash.  But onto more important matters.

I recall first playing Mega Man 3 (III) way back in or around 1991 or '92 (seeing as how I was rarely one to play the newest video games, let alone games in the Mega Man series of which I was never able to beat until June of last year).

But I did it, I beat Mega Man 3 and I think I've come to, at least for now, a bit of realization that I like this game as a whole more than the frequently touted Mega Man 2 as the best in the series {{Citation Needed}}.  Thinking about the first three games in the series up to the year of our lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety, I found that I enjoyed the level design of Mega Man 3 the most whereas I like the music from Mega Man 2 just a smidgen more than MM3.  Plus there's the additions of the newly created slide ability and the robot pet dog Rush with his various, if somewhat limited use abilities (Marine Rush!?).

First off, everything that I loved about MM2 was refined for this installment.  The level design gave me enough of an idea to the robot boss type and I didn't notice too much of the level art being reused for subsequent levels.  But it's the level design is what makes me enjoy this game just a little bit more than MM2.  After defeating the first eight bosses, you have to go through four of the levels again, but they are in a ravaged state.  chunks of the world are now missing, as if the absence of the boss or the havoc brought on by Mega Man has left portions of the world/level in a state of disrepair.  In Gemini Man's stage part two, there are Jamacys that fall through cracks and holes in the blocks that create the borders to the stage.  In every stage that you run into Proto Man, his escape routes are still there.  Then when you get to the boss area, you now have to fight one of the bosses from Mega Man 2, which is a nice throwback until you realize that your weapons are all different than the ones used in that game so your weapon choices have to be decided upon rather quickly (or you can use the aforementioned chart like I did).

Similar to how I played Mega Man 2, I used a chart to figure out which bosses I should play and it what order.  And how I defended my decision as I previously did, I don't find this to be cheating.  I find it no different than talking to Dr. Potts or Delaños about the order they used and which weapon they found to be more effective against which boss.  Again, I still had to go through the level and defeat the bosses on my own in the end, I just did it with an additional bit of information.

But here is the order that I took the bosses in:

1) Snake Man

2) Gemini Man

3) Magnet Man

4) Top Man

5) Shadow Man

6) Hard Man

7) Needle Man

8) Spark Man

I decided to start with Snake Man, because that's what I remember from playing 23 years ago.  Also, Snake Man's theme is pretty damn catchy and there isn't much more to get me interested and stay playing a game that hearing awesome music while being destroyed by a giant undulating robotic snake hellbent on destroying a modified service and homemaking robot.  

Now, I know that based on the aforementioned chart, that this list doesn't take into account "the best" way to go through the game and choosing the bosses based on their weaknesses.  Sometimes, as in the case with taking on Magnet Man before Shadow Man, that I needed to take a break from constantly dying in Shadow Man's stage and I found I was able to get through Magnet Man's stage and take him out.

Going back to the music, I find it interesting that Capcom brought on newcomers to the Mega Man franchise, introducing Yasuaki Fujita (credited as "Bun Bun" during the credits) who wrote all but two of the songs (Gemini Man and Needle Man) and Harumi Fujita. What I find interesting though, is that the music from this game blends fairly seamlessly with that from Mega Man 2, while still sounding different enough to not be repetitive as to be disinteresting to long time players of the series.

In the end, Mega Man 3 took me 6h21m to complete with an average play time of 25 minutes.  In MM3, I found that the regular stages were a lot more difficult than MM2, but that the Dr. Wily stages were a lot easier to traverse.

I guess I should in closing say that if you haven't played any of the games in the Mega Man series, that Mega Man 3 wouldn't be a bad place to start as it is a great continuation of a great series that, so far anyway, is a bit easier than the previous two games but is still a challenging experience that should not be missed out on if you are at all into older NES games from a great era of gaming.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
If It Ain't Broke. . .

It's Been A Hell Of A Week

Apologies for how I've been posting for the last week.  Last Friday I was unable to post because I didn't plan ahead, went to work on Thursday night, got home Friday morning, went to sleep, woke up at 2pm, packed for a trip down to California, sat in traffic for an hour when the commute usually takes 18-25 minutes, boarded a plane eventually arriving at my parents' house 8:45pm thoroughly exhausted.

Wednesdays MIDI-Week Single ended up not happening partly because of forgetting the aforementioned computer cable at the aforevisited parents' house and only receiving it on Wednesday afternoon shortly before going to sleep so that I would be awake enough to go to work Wednesday night, which is what I did again last night (Thursday-Friday).

And now I sit here at 7:30am wondering how to salvage what it is that I'm meandering on about so that I can go to sleep and wake up around 1pm to start my day.  So on that note, I'll see you on the other side, hopefully refreshed and full of zazz.

Not that you can tell, but it's now 2:35pm and I have semi-groggily awoken from my slumber where myself and another person were in combat with some sort of ice dragon that was reminiscent of dragging a butter knife along a wall of rocks.  It was not super effective.

But we're here to talk about gaming and I will do just that, but in more of an update form.  Again.

In the last week, I started playing Dota 2, all thanks to Chreekat and Vorlynx.  I'm presently still going through the tutorial, specifically the one where you play through the center lane 10 separate times with one of 20 characters.  I've gone through this one tutorial four times already and while it has become a little repetitive, the variation in the character design and their abilities is what's keeping the game interesting.  I have a feeling that this is a key feature of a MOBA.  I will be going back soon.

The Bioshock 2 DLC, Minerva's Den is also progressing nicely, although I have since forgotten how/why another early Big Daddy has come to life amidst the ruin of Rapture.  I think that was covered in the intro/beginning of the game, but it didn't seem all too important.  Also, why is it that only your character is able to use the Vita-Chamber?  And thanks to that article, it makes sense why every single enemy doesn't use the modern wonders of Vita-Chamber, from Ryan Industries.  I guess I must have glossed over that somewhat important plot point.

I also started Dragon Quest VI after deciding that I needed to step away from Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D on the 3DS.  I had reached a point with the game that it was not fun anymore and that I was only playing because I felt obligated to finish the game.  As I told Dr. Potts this weekend, the game play reminded me a bit like Super Meat Boy except with a limited number of lives. The charm to Super Meat Boy is that you have infinite lives and being able to pass a level is determined by the players stamina whereas in DKCR3D, you are reminded frequently of your dwindling life counter and dying is just as easy.  Dragon Quest VI  I feel is a much needed old school JRPG, of which I realized I hadn't played in, at least I think, a very long time.  Maybe not since I finished Dragon Quest V back in June 2012.

I'm going to call it a day and I will see y'all next week for a more concise and less free flowing post/article.  I just needed to get back on the wagon after missing last Friday and Wednesday.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Just Can't Figure It Out

Monthly Update: August 2014

Damn, is time flying by or what? 

During the month of July, I had blew through games at a rate that is not overly normal for me.  Being unemployed probably has something to do with it (although taking an accounting class probably counteracted some of the unemployment-ness), but I also happen to have been playing games that didn't take 50+ hours to complete (looking at your Elder Scrolls series).  During July I managed to finish Bioshock 2, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space (again), Thomas Was Alone, Outlast, Among the Sleep and Alone in the Dark.  With the exception of Bioshock 2 which took me 22 hours to complete, all the other listed games took less than 10, with  Among the Sleep and Alone in the Dark taking just under four hours each.  I like this.

Next on the list and continuing with the theme of older, now antiquated PC games will be I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream, but I want to finish reading the story first just because I'm about half way through and because it came free with the game when I bought it from gog.com.  I also want to find a playable version of a game from 1983 called Archon, so I'll be looking into that too.

There are also a couple of expansion/DLCs that are on my list to play as well.  First off there is the "Minerva's Den" for Bioshock 2, "Benjamin's Flight" for Thomas was Alone and "Whistleblower" for Outlast.  I don't know if I will get to all of these this month, but they are definitely on the "To Play" list of games that always seems to somehow be growing.

In the hand held gaming front, I'm still trudging through Donkey Kong Country Returns now being stuck (again) with one of those blasted (hehe) rocket levels that I had such a fun time (I didn't) with in the previous stage.  I'm also close to the end of Kirby's Adventure and I recently started a puzzle game from Fallen Tree Games and FK Digital in Nintendo's eShop called quell: reflect that is fun logic-type game about moving objects to a goal in a limited space; there might be an article in this.

Then there's the sadly neglected PSP that is sitting atop the bookshelf perpetually charged.  I have Vagrant Story and the first Silent Hill that I recently downloaded that I would really like to have a go at, as well as a couple other titles that I purchased oh so long ago that I have yet to start up; I'm looking at you Shin Megami Persona 1 & 2, Silent Hill Origins and God of War: Ghost of Sparta.

It looks like August is shaping up a bit, plus I still have a massive amount of books to read as the next on the list is the audio book edition of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, because why not?

See you all next week.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
They Run Amuck In My Terrain