"Here's How You Can Play That Game Better."

I've heard this for a while and it crops up every now and then: "If you don't build your character a certain way, you won't have a chance at beating the game" or "To get the most out of Game X, make sure to do this when creating a character."  I can't really be more specific than that as I always avoid reading these articles as I do not agree with them.  I would like to think/believe that a game can be enjoyed and beaten without the need to follow an unofficial ruleset.

I of course say all this after my failed attempt at Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light and I gave advice as to how to not fail as bad as I had done.

Does this make me a hypocrite?  Sure, why not!?

I bring this up now because I am playing (or at least started back in January) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and someone I was talking to (either in the real world or at work) asked if I was careful in how I created my character, because apparently if you do not do it correctly, you can ruin your chances of being able to finish the game.

I first heard about this "phenomenon" from a former housemate who told me about how to build a mage that wouldn't suck in Diablo II.  This roommate, whom we will call The Sauce, suggested that I build an Ice Mage and put my all of skill points into Ice Magic.  He followed this advice up with recounting how he had known people who had ruined their characters by accidentally putting skill points in the "wrong" skill tree and had to discard high level characters.  This idea that you could ruin a character on accident and have to start over from the beginning frightened me.  I should also point out that this was only 3 years ago.  I'm sure the same could be said for Torchlight I or II and I'm positive that there are at least a couple (hundred?) people would tell me that I have not created my Mage in Torchlight II correctly as I have my skill points spread out between a number Ice spells, a Fire spell and some passive buffing abilities.

I also read a similar article/post over on this internet thing regarding Breath of Death VII.  I was looking for hints about how to defeat a particular boss and two separate posts I read stated that if you put leveling attributes for particular characters in "the wrong" areas, that you would have a very hard time with the game.  And I am currently having a very hard time against a particular boss four hours in.

I do not like this.  Not one bit.  How is the normal gamer supposed to find this out on their own?  I think that's my feelings towards beating video games in general, that there should not be one specific way to beat a game.  To kill Boss A, you shouldn't need to perform specific attacks and defenses in a specific order otherwise you're not playing the game correctly.

I think this is one of the reasons why I could never beat Advance Wars: World of Ruin.  I just became stuck with a certain series of battles and had to resort to Gamefaqs to make my way through them.  It is frustrating to me that a written document could tell me how to beat a multi-faceted enemy, that there is a preordained order that the computer performs its actions so that a victory can be achieved over and over again.  Eventually I gave up because I had reached a stalemate about 20 minutes into a battle and didn't want to go through reading an article and having my hand held through the remainder of the battle.  Additionally, if I had to have my hand held through the last number of battles, I would most likely need to be directed through the rest of the game as it would only prove to be more-and-more difficult.

So that's my two bits about games where people feel that you need to create characters in a certain/specific way in order for the game to be enjoyed (i.e.: beaten).  I'll play the game however the damn hell I please.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
You Can't Change Fate, But Don't Feel So Bad


P.S.  In a similar, but not related train of thought, this idea about following an obscure plan in order to get something from a game happened to me in Final Fantasy XII when I first heard about the Zodiac Spear.  The article I read said that you could not have opened any of the treasure chests in a couple of specific areas  and that the Zodiac Spear could be in one of two chests in a particular dungeon.  I say "could" because even if you did open one of the chests you weren't supposed to open, it could still be there, but there would be something like a 90% chance that it wouldn't.  Now how in the hell is the regular player supposed to figure this out if there was nothing in the game that hinted about this?  

In The Northwest, Every Precipice in Rainslicked

For the life of this blog, I probably won't be talking too often about games before they're released.  This is primarily because I don't have enough information that isn't already "out there" and if I'm talking about a game before it's release date, I can almost promise you that half of what I'll say will sound like, "This looks really awesome; I can't wait to play [insert game title here]; I liked the first two games, but I don't know why the developers are taking this direction, I guess it might be alright; This looks to be a fun game, but as I don't have the necessary system, I probably won't play it unless someone else I know buys it."

However!

Penny Arcade Aventures: On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness - Episode III comes out this Monday, June 25th, 2012.  I played the first two games much later than nearly everyone else (as in ~3 years after they came out) and thought they were hilarious and kept in the spirit of the creators and the comic characters.  This third installment is a taking a different direction, artistically from the first two games (since they've moved away from Hothead Games and are now using Zeboyd Games (the people who created Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII).  The first two games looked like a souped up version of the NES game Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  Wait, you're saying you didn't play that game?  It looked something like this then.  Well, my memory just failed me, because it didn't look much like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, just watch part of this and you'll get the gist.  

So, now that the context is set, my point can be made, even if it's in a different paragraph than the one where my point was mentioned.  Rainslick...III is not like those games.  It's more like Final Fantasy III/VI, at least the visuals and artwork are.  I can't say that they're trying to capitalize on some 16 bit hipster fan-boy thing since the people who wrote the game grew up playing these games when they were first out.  But anyway, just go have a look for yourselves at the trailer here:

I'm just really excited because I loved the story, style and humor of the first two games and like anyone who enjoys a series, I want to play more of that series.  And, and, and, AND!!!!  When/if you decide to purchase this game (through Steam), you will earn yourself a copy of Cthulhu Saves the World! Sadly, I already have the game (have yet to play it though) and I can't gift it to someone else.

That's all I'm going to say on this matter as again, I'm just a part of the gaming community, not part of the industry and I don't know anything about the game save what the trailer just told me.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

The Sounds of Silence are Excited Too

Currently Playing:

I do enjoy the box art

Cthulhu saves the world.  It's a fun distraction, bordering on a complete waste of time.  Which is how I would describe a lot of games, to tell you the truth.  But right now I'm little irritated with Cthulhu saves the world.  It's a funny game, and the first couple of hours are good for some snickering and old-school RPG nostalgia.  But by now, I'm 5.5 hours deep, and it's really not going anywhere.

Granted, this game is a parody of 8 and 16 bit era console RPGs, so it's not really out to impress anyone.  And as a part of the parody, there are some interesting gameplay modifications.  For example, the ability to fight all of the enemies in a given dungeon, and then walk freely after that.  Or how, after a given battle, the party is healed to full.  This streamlines the game, however, that's where some of the problem is- the game is too streamlined for the genre.

Neat Volcano

 As I said, 5.5 hours in, and I'm on the other side of this volcano.  I got here by finding a cure for a plague which had plagued the poor port town on some other island/continent.  The dungeon where I went to find the cure was pretty boring, and the town I landed in before the volcano was boring.  I think it was when I was searching all the bookshelves and drawers in the town, and one of the responses made fun of me for doing this- this is when I became suspicious that this game was falling into the 'suck' territory.  

I think it's funny that the narrator made fun of me for looking in every f-ing drawer.  But the thing is - there is NOTHING in any of the drawers.  Just jokes.  Lots of them, which I appreciate, but the game has basically no items, so there isn't much to find.  So, after wandering a useless city, I go to the volcano, and I am back in another dungeon, after only 5 minutes of time between dungeons.  It's just too soon to be in another damned dungeon.

BoD VII has boxart too!

I recommend playing Breath of Death VII first.  It's by the same makers, and it has many of the same themes and gameplay elements.  It came out before Cthulu, and features 8-bit style graphics.  BoDVII is much shorter, and I think it is a better game.  Cthulu tries too hard, but somehow without trying hard enough.  If you play Breath of Death VII and really like it, then go ahead and play Cthulu.  (Oh, I guess I should mention that I bought both of these games as a "two-fer" on steam, for 15 bucks.