OMG Castlevania: DoS OMG
Through the miracle of GameCrazy's Wishlist, I managed to get the rarified CASTLEVANIA: Dawn of Sorrow. That was an amazing day for me. I put my hands on the box and heard the angels sing and devils weep, as justice was served.
I was pretty blown away by the visuals in this game. I really cant see why SOTN cant port its way onto the DS at this point. The complaints leveled against the magic seal stuff seem overblown, I was afraid the seal things would be really small so the motions on the touch screen would get bungled up, but the seal is the
size of the screen, so honestly how hard can the later ones be? Half the time the game does them for you anyway.
I got my hands on a cool katana and I can throw cats at people. The first PUNCH boss was sorta tough but his pattern was thankfully pretty predictable. He had a mean left hook though get it lolz lef.. anyway..
A nod to the excellent music and the much improved characters and dialogue. I know the original game in this castlevania storyline had some good bits, but DoS seems to pace the character interactions and story at a pace that doesnt let you forget that half these people are actually friends, not chance encounters.
Final Fantasy Advance: Turn based on the go, but so stripped down....
I was also in Seattle this weekend looking around Pikes Place Market which was OMG swarmed with street folk, carnies, and out of towners. I didnt like the crowd at all, or the giant insane man that shoved me out of the way as I crossed the street. I did make it to the mall nearby and found Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for 15 dollars JAWSOME. This title has become impossible to find used lately, I think jerks are snatching up the last of the copies in used circulation or something. I am of course not counting online sources.
The entire snowball fight 'lets look at a fantasy book' sequence aside, this game is an excellent time sink between bouts of Disgaea 2 which I long to return to..I just need to get home from work. Playing Tactics Advance has reminded me how much the genre has evolved thanks to the efforts of NIS. The judge system in Tactics Advance is neat, but there's a lot of bloat in the interface that seems like such a hassle. Like R U SURE U WANNA DO THIS after you tell the game to carry out an action.
Also, I havent leveled a complaint about the D-PAD for DS Lite yet, but for this game in particular, moving the cursor over the grid is a bit of a pain in Tactics Advance with the DS Lite d-pad. It's a little too sensitive for the game, so I am constantly moving past squares and doubling back.
I do appreciate that the game, with all of its story, does offer a very open ended experience that translates into a bajillion hours of strat fun, but after playing most of the NIS games, when I play Tactics it is so hard not to see what it is missing.
Disgaea 2 does not have bad voice acting!
Quick recap, playing through a crapload of RPGs, a new mission, fight for future etc etc...
I am about three hours from completing Wild Arms 4, I just need to make it to town to buy Raquel her best weapon and then im ready to roll. As long as Raquel can keep crit-ing over 13000 I am pretty sure the last boss will be a cake-walk. Grandia III is not going as well, the Silver Stream in Verse World is a bitch. The enemies keep layer bomb traps and the stupid Verse Shrooms have a ton of hit points and cast a quake that destroys. I am going to head back tomorrow night with a crapload of earth rings equipped and teach them the meaning of pain. However I think this is really just an indication that I need to grind some levels.
Now on to my main issue, people bitching about Disgaea 2's VA. WHAT exactly is wrong with it? I even recognize a few of the actors from professional dubs for popular dubbed anime (rozlin is martina from Slayers Next for example). The point is I remember Makai Kingdom's voice acting very well and if anything MK's voice work hams it up way more, so if either game should get VA bitching it would be MK, but even then it wasnt BAD.
So it boils down to a very simple fact. Etna's VA was changed. This bothers people, why I cannot begin to fathom. Her VA has changed, but the style in the way she talks fits her character, and the delivery isnt bad. What we have here is a case of nerds not being able to let go. Who the hell cares if Etna's VA changed if its still good. IM SORRY YOUR IMAGINARY DEMON GIRLFRIEND ISNT WHAT YOU REMEMBER, but some things gotta change you stupid bastards. Just worship the shrine in your closets until Disgaea PSP hits the states.
Last but not least lol... "This is the way my thread ends..."
I watched the Halo 3 trailer again and was compelled to fire up Halo 2 again and shoot some covenant. The game looks great on 360 but I find it incredible I rarely hear people talk about the MASSIVE amounts of texture pop-in and frame-rate drops in cinematics. It's really amazing the game was able to ship with something so obvious. It honestly affects my enjoyment of the cutscenes, because as each begins I actually WAIT for the rest of it to render in front of me, and when it completes I get a framerate drop. Awesome.
That aside, when the cutscenes stop the game is fun. People who hate the Covenant levels can shove off, and cliff-hangers are cliff-hangers, we're ALL bungie's bitch lol...
