Mirri Night's GameLog

Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:36:04

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:36:04 CST

5:12 After playing another hour of LoZ:OoT, it is a solidified fact that games do not get worse with age (... other than physically). There are some frustrating parts of the game -- when you forget where to go next in a temple, or think one thing should work and it doesn't -- but on the whole this game is still a highly enjoyable experience. I know we are supposed to focus on what about the game design makes it an achievement, rather than how awesome the game is, so I am going to try to focus on its good qualities. The gameplay itself is not boring -- being Link (though I name him Face) and using all of his equipment is not monotonous, which I think is a problem with a lot of games, i.e. shmups. The depth of conversations in the game and the hidden things in the game, and surprise details for the stories, add to the enjoyment of the game. (For example: I have not played this part for this game yet, because I only got to the end of the Fire level when he is a child, but once Link receives the Ocarina of Time after Zelda escapes from Ganondorf and right before Link goes forward in time, there are a wealth of different conversations available throughout the world of Hyrule. In particular in one of the back alleys of Castle Town there is a soldier who speaks at length about Zelda's escape and how the guards reacted to Ganondorf. This is just an example, but also the details of mannerisms different characters have between the past and the future add a whole new feeling to the game.) It is details like this upon an already strong storyline and mode of gameplay that make LoZ:OoT a truly classical and amazing video game. I'm very glad I got to play it for an assignment. <3

Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - Thu, 22 Feb 2007 18:49:01

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 18:49:01 CST

4:15 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of my favorite video games that highly influenced my childhood, which I feel is a sentiment quite a few people share with me. After all, the game was pretty far out for its time, and a standing achievement. One of the reasons I enjoy it so much now is the sense of nostalgia it inspires in me, even if -- even though -- I never got *everything*, 100%, without using some kind of player's guide, and so don't have all of the game memorized. I started a new game for my gamelog, and in the first hour I completed the first level and went on to Hyrule Castle, stopping at Lon Lon Ranch on the way. As a kid I, and my brothers, would embroider upon the emotional aspects of the game, i.e. the (childish?) notion of who Link would be best with out of the four eligible bachelorettes of the game. I happen to think it is these things -- the emphasis of our imaginations on things hinted at in the game -- that truly make this game nostalgic and memorable (at least for me). Going through all the levels would be tedious if I didn't love the game so much, simply because I have played the game so often through that when I lag on things that should be easy I get frustrated. Fighting the bosses -- namely, the spider-queen-whatever of the Deku tree -- are still enjoyable, though, and going through the motions of everything in the game and acquiring what secrets I can gives me a sense of accomplishment. More in an hour. <3

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (GBA) - Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:44:11

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:44:11 CST

3:00 After another 45 minutes or so, my interest waned a lot. As much as I love the game -- really, I do enjoy it a lot -- the GBA grated on my nerves and I have a lot of things on my mind, such as a lot of homework, that interfered with my gameplay. I DID get the Doctor to a Yellow Heart, though -- that means he's at the fifth out of seven levels of affection for me. Hurrah! When I look at all the things I want to get done in the game, it seems like a lot of work... almost like a chore, really, to get everything; sort of the way WoW grates on you, the pressure to level and get better and better. But a certain sense of satisfaction and enjoyment comes from it as well, so that's probably why I keep playing (both).

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (GBA) - Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:26:03

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:26:03 CST

2:15 pm (I decided to take up this game for my next Game Log assignment...) I played this game for an hour today and, though I love it, an hour is a long time to sit cramped in a chair staring at a darkened Game Boy Advance screen. Part of this annoyance may be due to inadequate lighting, however... I am in my first year in Fall, on the 10th day. My character's name is Dawn and I am "wooing" the doctor. So far I have seen a few additional character skits in the game other than those associated with my love interest -- there are scenes involved with every other character in the game, as well as a few additional ones per rival female. Every day of the game I do the same thing; I take care of all the things on my farm, and then go to visit the Poultry farm, the beach, and the doctor, all in that order. I mention this because it's just dawning on me how monotonous the gameplay is and yet I still find the game extremely fun -- or maybe addicting... maybe I'm just confusing the two. Regardless - there are few things that are different per day in the game. Maybe it doesn't get boring because there's so much potential to do different things every day, and there's festivals every now and then, and occasionally a skit may pop up... Whatever the reason, the game is still entertaining (in small doses). Hopefully after another hour, it won't become boring.

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (GBA) - Sun, 04 Feb 2007 21:11:29

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 21:11:29 CST

I am a HUGE fan of the Harvest Moon series. My fandom is expressed through a variety of creative outlets, such as inspired artwork and fanfiction (see: nerd). I only own four Harvest Moon games, however, out of the ridiculous number of Harvest Moon games that there are (not including their ludicrous amount of mirror versions of each game for each gender). Not all of these games are amazing, but each one is enjoyable, in its own way. My personal favorite is Harvest Moon 64. I received HM:MFoMT (wow, what an acronym) for Christmas two years ago now, and really only started playing this February 1st. (Scandalous, I know.) The reason why was because I felt Game Boy Advances are not as entertaining as the big screen -- Puzzle Fighter II aside -- and was loathe to attempt yet another disappointing Harvest Moon game. (Incidentally, my friend gave me the girl version of Friends of Mineral Town because I am female.) Fortunately, I have not been disappointed yet! Though the screen is hard to see in dim classrooms, this game so far contains the sheer unadulterated amusement experienced in Harvest Moon 64: it is uncontaminated by realism (har har) and rife with amusing skits and scenarios (which are and have been my favorite aspect of the Harvest Moon series: the fact that they're basically naive dating sims with farming involved). I am excited that I have a new game similar to Harvest Moon 64 in which I have not already accomplished every secret and done everything these is to be done, without spending over a year of real-time playing trying to accomplish it (see: Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life). It's difficult to pinpoint why I like this game so much, and why I love Harvest Moon 64 so passionately. I have a feeling that since Harvest Moon 64 was my first HM game, my memories of it are tinged with the sweetest nostalgia, making the game much more special to me and greater in my memory than it might truly be, technically speaking. And since HM:MFoMT has similar graphics and the same characters, it inspires in me the same giddy happiness I derive from HM64, though a bit different as the game is different, and slightly dampened because the manner in which I am playing is less... emotionally inspiring. I cannot connect to a tiny dark screen the same way I can to a large, bright screen. So to speak. Maybe I'm getting far too personal with my games. Regardless, I'm going to continue playing this game for a time.... My character's name is Dawn and I am "wooing" the doctor. I may update this more when I find features of the game I enjoy or dislike in the future.

Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:28:11

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:28:11 CST

7:50 pm I continued to be beaten by both Adam and Eric for a while after the previous entry. They are both pretty good players, and though I can beat Adam at Melee, I’m pretty helpless against him in the original version. I find it interesting that the original and the sequel are so different from one another in gameplay. For one reason, it is highly more enjoyable to play Melee for long stretches of time than the original. Part of this could be because there are fewer characters in the original, and even fewer GOOD characters. Eric played as a single character the whole time until Adam forced him to change characters (he was convinced that Kirby was the key to success). I can’t quite put my finger on what else could be the reason why this game is less enjoyable now; I know that back when it came out, it was a lot of fun to play. I can only presume that since a sequel has come out and heightened this type of gameplay to an even more enjoyable level, going back to the original is a bit of a turn-off. Lots of elements in the game were improved in Melee, and it’s very obvious when one plays the games for long stretches of time. Overall, I didn’t terribly enjoy playing this game for this long. I enjoy it for a certain length of time, but then it becomes boring – it seems monotonous after a while, and especially if one continues to lose. I much prefer the new one over the old one, but I know a few people who like the old one better – Eric and Adam, though they both like the new one more, say the old one has its “perks”. Regardless, the game IS a classic by its nature, though it has a newer and better successor.

Super Smash Brothers (N64) - Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:26:56

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:26:56 CST

7:00 pm For my second Classics game, I chose to play Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64 (along with friends Adam Edwards, Amy Carlo and Eric Osugi, and both males are also in this class). I played this game a few years ago when it originally came out for the Nintendo 64, and I loved it back then – I used to play it all the time with my friends and siblings. Back then I was good with Pikachu and Kirby, and I used to be pretty slick with those characters’ controls. The game is – was? – highly enjoyable and passed the time easily. However, as the years went on I moved on to the game’s sequel Super Smash Bros Melee and became used to those controls, as I played that version of the game much more. Consequently, going back to the N64 game was a bit strange to play for a prolonged period of time – though this version was the original (and thus classic), it seemed like a different game after I had played a newer and faster version. The characters seemed to move slower, the graphics were blocky and things seemed to happen which were completely unintended. After playing the GameCube version for a much longer time than I ever had the original, players seemed to intend one thing and something else would happen entirely. We also would use excuses such as “I’m used to the other one, I can’t play this so well” which, despite being a true enough excuse, was disregarded and seen as a poor reason for sucking in multiplayer mode. Interestingly enough, when I came back to this game after playing Melee for a few years, I am much better with Samus (a character I had never played before) than with my former-best characters. So far the gameplay is somewhat enjoyable, although with fighter-multiplayer games, sometimes it’s no fun when playing with someone who is far better than you (and Eric beats us nearly every time). I played the game for forty-five minutes before writing this, and now intend to play another forty-five minutes.

Soul Calibur III (PS2) - Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:29:29

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:29:29 CST

5:00 This game is amazingly frustrating after two hours of versus-mode with two competent players. I am amazingly incompetent when one hands me a PlayStation 2 controller, and it is evident by my failing-fast performance in the second hour of SC3 today. I am glad that I got a little better with Tira, which was obvious; during the second hour I started beating Eric more often (thought Adam beat us all the time regardless). There is nothing bad about the game, really; I find that most fighting games however, along with most things, become stale once repeated over and over again. All we played was versus mode with different characters for the two hours. I guess in the way of fighting games, SC3 is supreme, even if it takes some getting used to the controls; but there's only so much entertainment fighting games can offer before it becomes the same old thing.

Soul Calibur III (PS2) - Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:25:19

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 22:25:19 CST

4:00 pm I am a big fan of Soul Calibur II. It has a unique twist to it, a certain personality and charisma in each character, that lends the game a unique draw to it and attracts the player to the game. Naturally, the fighting style -- a 3D fighter where the players are not limited to two directions -- is what really attracts players to the game, but the voice-overs are a nice plus. Naturally, one would assume that Soul Calibur III, its direct descendant, would have all this and more. And it does. I have played this game before, but never for such a long time as I have now. And it's nice; there are more characters, with additional features and more personalities, than Soul Calibur II had to offer. There are also additional ways of altering the character's appearance, with a wider choice of costumes (because of the 'edit color' mode). There is also a Create Your Own Character feature, which I did not mess around with but seems like something highly enjoyable. However, I am not a PS2 player, and I was playing against someone who was and someone who is a video game aficionado. Adam Edwards proceeded to beat me at every game, no matter which character I tried. Eric Osugi didn't beat me every time, but he assured me I was playing poorly because I am a "button masher", even if I know what I'm trying to do in the game. The problem is that the controls are very different from a Game Cube's, and my instincts to block instead command my player to "square + triangle", which is not at all helpful when being consistently attacked. I was good with Ivy and Talim in SC2, so I tried using them along with Tira and Setsuka (I generally only play as female characters) in my battles. It was amazingly frustrating, though I am sure through no fault of the game's -- the controls are the only issues I have with this game so far, and that's because the block is not in a place I am used to on the controller. Otherwise I love everything about the game: the characters, the storyline, and the fighting are great.

World of Warcraft (PC) - Fri, 12 Jan 2007 02:23:33

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 02:23:33 CST

1/11/07 I have been playing more WoW -- of course, because I play nearly every day -- and I am still perplexed as to why I continue to play this game. It is an MMORPG, a type of game I generally do not enjoy; I play in a PvP realm, meaning I am pretty much at the mercy of any enemy players I may run across; and finally, a good portion of how well one does is dependent on the characters' gear, the hunt for which can be irritating and ultimately very time-consuming. Thus, my perplexity increases. How can I spend twelve hours sitting in my underwear on my bed, munching on Rice Krispies and downing Monster energy drinks, and not realize what a pathetic lump of flesh I may appear as to my mother or anyone who may happen to walk in? The answer is the intrigue created by the game. A certain sense of satisfaction is aroused when one completes a quest one spent hours on; a type of glorious vindication is felt when one succeeds in the battleground; and of course, if you're playing with your friends, gameplay is both amusing and enjoyable. The fact that one attempts so much at this game, spends so much time on it, it seems to demand a satisfactory result. It's almost as if despite the truth that the player's victory is ultimately pointless, he fails to notice because he has become absorbed completely into the World of Warcraft. The compelling, addictive aspects of this game make gaming worthwhile. I feel that if one can't get aborbed into the game, it's not worth it.