Archive for the ‘Gaming’ Category
Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Screenshots of the game are taken from Gamespot
After playing Yakuza 2, I felt like taking it slow and play something not so action-packed. Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny seemed to fit my criteria. It has turn-based battles and seems to be fairly light-hearted. I have not played other games in the Atelier Iris series but if it has a sequel, it must be of some standard right?
Posted in Gaming | No Comments »
Yakuza 2
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Yakuza 2 is a beat ‘em up/brawler game which is over the top and fun to play. I spent 20+ hours playing it but I didn’t complete every side mission.
Posted in Gaming | No Comments »
Rogue Galaxy
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
I borrowed Rogue Galaxy from my friend and got quite hooked on it. I’ve been playing the game in all my spare time and have neglected my blog. Now that you’re reading this, it means that I’ve completed the game.
I like Rogue Galaxy. It was a typical RPG game which felt a little like Star Wars, a little like Treasure Planet and a little like Final Fantasy. The story is a typical RPG boy-saves-the-world plot, but it is quite charming in its own way so I managed to play through the whole game.
Posted in Gaming | 1 Comment »
Persona 4
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
Finished playing Persona 4 after over 100 hours of gaming time. By my book, any game that kept my interest long enough for me to finish the game is a good game. There are too many games that I played for a while and never continued after that. So any game that kept my interest, even through all the monotonous dungeon levelling up, is a well-made game.
All the reviews I’ve read said the Persona 4 kept all that was good in Persona 3 and improved on it. So by logical deduction, Persona 4 should be better than Persona 3, right? I agreed that Persona 4 did have some improvements over Persona 3, they were not big changes. Maybe a shortcut here to make it easier to go from place to place, that sort of thing.
I like Persona 4 and I enjoyed the game and I will probably play it again. But I still like Persona 3 more. Firstly, the story in Persona 3 was more thrilling. There was a sense of urgency and as the seasons changed, there were visual evidence of decay and deterioration in the world. In Persona 4, while there was a main mystery to solve and people were in danger of being murdered, I did not feel as anxious. There was a very laid-back feel to the whole story and it wasn’t until the end of the game did I get a sense that the world will be destroyed. But even then, it was more like the world COULD be destroyed but it wasn’t in any real danger of that.
So of course at no point in the game was I worried about my characters dying. Not worrying about the characters dying made me feel less for them. Or maybe it was the other way round? Not caring much for the characters made me less worried about them dying. But lest you start forming bad impressions of Persona 4 characters, I want to clarify that the characters in Persona 4 are likeable and I do like them. They are a crazy bunch and funnier than the characters in Persona 3. Some of the cut scenes made me laugh out loud. It’s just that at no point in time do I worry about their safety.
I felt the voices for Persona 3 matched the characters more accurately than Persona 4. I hated Chie’s voice initially and while I got used to her voice as I progressed through the game, I still do not like it. On the other hand, it was partly due to Rise’s voice that made her one of my favourite characters in Persona 4. Apart from Chie, the rest of the characters’ voices do match them quite well.
It was interesting, and perhaps a credit to the designers of the game, that the setting of Persona 3 felt cosmopolitan while Persona 4 felt smaller. Somehow while playing Persona 4, I keep getting the feeling that it was smaller in terms of venue although the number of areas remained the same as Persona 3. I think it shows that the designers were successful in creating the feel and setting of a small town.
I will be taking a break from the Persona games and maybe try again to see if I can finish my other unfinished games. I probably will have to start from scratch since it has been a long while since I last played them and I had forgotten all the controls and where I stopped. Meanwhile I’ll be waiting for the launch of Devil Summoner 2 (from the same company who made the Persona series) which will be on Playstation 2. Oh joy!
Posted in Gaming | No Comments »